The West Ranch Wildcats may have claimed the Foothill League tennis title, but it was the Saugus doubles’ pairing in Grant Schlotfelt and Joaquin Veizaga and Hart’s singles’ playerNixon Liescheidt who took their respective wins in the Foothill League finals on Wednesday.
Centurions Schlotfelt and Veizaga, who are both freshmen at Saugus High School, secured the doubles championship after entering the tournament as the No. 2 ranked doubles pairing in the tournament.
“It’s exciting — we’ve never had a boys team advance to the second day, let alone win the whole tournament, as long as I’ve been coaching,” Saugus coach Bailey Sindle said. “They put in a lot of hard work, especially for being freshmen, and I’m excited to see what they do in the next three years.”
Schlotfelt and Veizaga opened the Foothill League tournament with wins over Valencia’s and West Ranch’s doubles’ teams in the first and second round.
In the semifinals, the freshman pairing advanced to the finals following a win over Valencia’s Jason Lee and Nicholas Bronstein, 6-1, 6-1.
In the finals, the pairing won the tournament in thrilling fashion over the Grizzlies’ pairing in Logan Gunter and Darin Zareno, 7-5, 6-1.
Gunter and Zareno entered the tournament as the No. 1 ranked pairing in the Foothill League.
After the tournament, both Schlotfelt and Veizaga described it as a cool experience and were glad to represent Saugus High School and make a deep run.
“It’s a very cool experience and feels very surreal and I’m very happy about that,” Veizaga said.
In the third-place doubles match, it was an all-Valencia Vikings affair as the pairing of Noah Yu and Logan Murray secured the win, 6-1, 6-4, over their teammates Lee and Bronstein.
In singles play, Hart’s Liescheidt secured the singles championship for the second consecutive year following a strong showing in the finals over the Wildcats’ Ryan Chung, 6-1, 6-1.
Liescheidt, who’s a junior, said after the tournament that Chung made the finals a fun match to play and he had to use the whole court to his advantage to take the victory.
“Ryan Chung is a great opponent,” he said. “But I was able to get the ball back and hit the balls that opened up the court and finish him.”
Liescheidt added that he’s been training extensively for the tournament and that after the first day, he approached the finals with a mindset to win.
The junior entered the tournament as the No. 1 ranked singles player in the Foothill League, a feat that he’s looking to take into next season.
As the boys’ tennis regular season comes to an end, qualified teams and individuals will compete in the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section playoffs.
The Southern Section is set to release the pairings for the boys’ tennis playoffs on Saturday at 10 a.m. that will feature where and when teams from the Santa Clarita Valley will play, with the first round scheduled for Wednesday, May 6.
