Bears eye history after clinching spot in boys tennis section final.
The Merced High boys tennis team punched their ticket to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championship with an impressive 7-2 victory over No. 3 Woodcreek on Thursday afternoon at Merced. The No. 2 seeded Bears (13-5) will face No. 4 Kennedy in the finals on Thursday, May 14 at the University of the Pacific. Kennedy upset No. 1 Rio Americano 5-4 in the other semifinal match.
This will be Merced’s first final appearance since 2023 as they attempt to become the first Bears tennis team to win a section championship since 1991. “Today was really a team win all around,” said Bears coach Keith Tetangco. “Everyone played a big role in getting us to the finals. We knew we had good enough players to put us in position to win and we were thrilled when Carlos (Montanez) got us over the edge to seal the match.”
The Bears’ depth was on display against Woodcreek as Merced won No. 2 through No. 6 singles and No. 2 and No. 3 doubles. Coming in, Merced knew No. 1 singles would be a tough draw with Bears senior James Tetangco matching up against one of the top players in the section in Woodcreek’s Eshan Jamwal. The Timberwolves junior did pick up the win over Tetangco.
The Bears hope was they matched up well with Woodcreek down the rest of the lineup and that proved to be true. Picking up singles wins for Merced were Ian Hansford, Alejandro Martinez, Parth Mishra, Gagandeep Singh and Montanez. Merced also picked up doubles wins from the No. 2 team of Bishop Nunez and Christian Montanez and the No. 3 team of Keaton Hillyer and Harold Ornelas.
Like the Bears have done all season, they received solid plan from up and down their lineup. “The strength of our team starts at the top with James and Ian,” Tetangco said. “Against most competitive teams James almost always gets us a win at No. 1 and Ian really stepped it up since last year, competing with James to make us competitive up top with some of the stronger teams in the section. Alejandro joined the team this year and he really added depth to our team, especially early in the season with Parth nursing an injury. Once Parth started to get back into form our team really took off. We tell our team all the time that even our JV players play a role in strengthening our team. Without players lower on our ladder pushing to get better our varsity guys would become complacent.”
After coasting through the CCC with a perfect 10-0 record and two playoff wins, the Bears have their sights set on ending the 35 year drought on section titles for the program. “This season has been in the making since our seniors were freshmen,” Tetangco said. “We have worked hard strengthening our team, adding key guys like Alejandro to support James, Ian, and Parth, and getting our doubles players clicking. It means a lot and that our team’s efforts have paid off.”
Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.