Beavers Defeat NorCal Rival, Foothill Owls, to Advance to Regional Championship
4/16/24
ARC-5 Foothill-2
Overall: 15-4 Conference: 6-0
For the 8th consecutive season the ARC men's tennis team has advanced to the NorCal championship match. They have advanced to the state championship in 5 of the previous 7 years. This year they matched up with the highly talented Foothill Owls in the regional semifinal. On paper the Owls were the favorite, but the well-conditioned Beavers were able to outlast their formidable opponents on one of the first warm days of the year. In the doubles, the #2 team of Spencer Hill/Arjun Sivakumar won a straight-forward match by the score of 8-5. It was much less routine at #3, as Tarang Sharma/Shane Timmons fought off 2 match points, and a double-break deficit to earn the victory 9-7. At one point in the ,match, the Owls served for the match at 7-4, but Sharma/Timmons fought back with an incredible intensity, and ripped off 5 straight games.
Going into the singles, ARC needed to take 3 of the 6 matches to clinch the dual-team victory. Shane Timmons rolled to a 6-1, 6-3 victory at #6 to put the Beavers 2 matches from the win. Enrique Silveira won a tough straight set battle against his talented opponent, David Budziwojski,7-5, 6-4. After Foothill got one match closer by winning at #4, Arjun Sivakumar (#3) fought off 3 break points while serving at 3-4 in the 3rd set, and then promptly broke his opponent to take a 5-4 lead. On match point, Sivakumar hit a quality approach, a solid volley, and finished the point with a well placed overhead to seal the victory for the Beavers. "This Foothill team is extremely talented, so it says a lot that we were able to play well enough to beat them with their full lineup. They have had injury problems all season, so they haven't been at full strength much of the year, but they were today, and our team stepped up to meet the challenge" explained coach Bo Jabery Madison. "We'll have another tough challenge in the NorCal final against Chabot this Saturday."
The Beavers will play against the Chabot Gladiators on Friday, April 20th at 1:00p on their home courts. The two teams matched up earlier in the season, with the Beavers grinding out a 5-4 victory.