Beyer’s Lewis wraps up unbeaten season in strange fashion; Gregori clinches MMC team tennis title

Beyer High’s Ryan Lewis won the final point in the fifth game of the first set of his No. 1 singles match Thursday when he noticed Johansen’s Sergio Lopez walking off the tennis court.

Lewis, who entered with a perfect record in Modesto Metro Conference play, thought he’d won the game, dropping only a single point in the process. Lopez claimed the score was only 30-15.

After a brief discussion – tennis and golf are the only high school sports where players handle the officiating duties – Lopez opted to forfeit, handing a perplexed Lewis a perfect league record in the Patriots’ 6-3 win over the Vikings.

According to both players, they’ve had disagreements in the past.

So, with Lewis on the sidelines and a perfect season in his back pocket, the spotlight fell on the No. 2 singles match between Beyer’s Gabe Quindara and Johansen’s Michael Slyusarchuk, who held his own early, trailing 3-2 in the first game before Quindara finished him off 6-2, 6-0.

Meanwhile, across town, Gregori was dispatching Downey for the second time this season, putting the finishing touches on a 12-0 campaign with a 7-2 victory to clinch the MMC championship. Since the Jaguars won 7-2 in the first meeting – the Knights’ lone loss of the season – Downey would have needed to win 8-1 to overtake them for the title.

Downey’s top player, Nick Mendez, defeated Gregori’s Zak Hijaouy 6-1, 7-6 (6) for one of the Knights’ two victories.

“We were missing our usual No. 5 singles player,” Gregori coach Ethan Duewell said. “So we moved up Roel Dahuya from doubles and had him play No. 6 singles.

“I thought Roel might struggle because he hadn’t played singles in a few weeks, but he played a very strong match, as did our doubles teams, which has been our strength all season.”

Dahuya defeated Curtis Figgins 6-4, 7-6 (5), while Ken Whang delivered a strong outing with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Connor Farris in the No. 3 singles matchup.

The tandems of Sam Stapley and Ben Duewell, Harben Mahil and Stephen Granberg, and Helder Serrato and Emilio Takenaga all were victorious.

Up next is the MMC tournament, which gets started at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Modesto Junior College with singles action. Doubles play, and the remainder of the singles tourney, will be held Thursday at MJC.

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 11:01 PM with the headline "Beyer’s Lewis wraps up unbeaten season in strange fashion; Gregori clinches MMC team tennis title."