West Ranch boys tennis singles player Parker McBride was feeling the effects of a little birthday luck on Wednesday afternoon against Granada Hills.
Going up against Daniel Lin, the No. 45 player in the state of California according to tennisrecruiting.net, McBride had to step up his aggressive net presence.
He was trailing 5-4, but held off two set points to come back for a 7-5 victory.
Although he didn’t complete sweep Lin, McBride was pleased with the 7-5 set win along with the 6-2 win in another set.
“I feel like a lot of it was birthday luck,” said McBride, who is the Wildcats’ No. 2 singles player. “Double deuce … and I out-grinded him and I felt like that was birthday luck.”
Overall on the afternoon, West Ranch took down the Highlanders 12-6 on their home courts.
McBride’s success was a turning point for the Wildcats, who took a 5-1 lead in the first round after his win.
“Five to one is just a really big psychological margin to come over,” said coach Eric Spiecker. “Whereas 4-2 is still, like, reachable.”
Davey Woodland and Charlie Spina, the No. 1 and No. 3 singles players, respectively, also won their matches against the Highlanders.
The Cats’ top doubles pairing of Jake Anderson and Hayden Rand won 6-0, 6-0, 6-2.
“Hayden Rand and Jake Anderson did a great job of really setting the tone, setting the pace for the rest of the doubles lineup,” Spiecker said. “The other doubles lineups stepped right in.”
Sam Villa and Robert Kim had a confidence-booster when they defeated Granada Hills’ No. 2 doubles team 6-0.
West Ranch is coming off its fourth-straight Foothill League title, with Davey Woodland as the reigning league singles champion.
The Cats lost few players to graduation, setting them up as one of the dominant teams in the league once again.
Although it was only the second match of the season, Spiecker sees the win over the Highlanders as an indicator for the remainder of preleague and beyond.
“Everybody did something that contributed today tremendously,” he said. “It was a great match.”
