Attack Dogs: Ceres tennis nets inaugural Sac-Joaquin Section D-III team title

The decorated Ceres boys tennis team wasn’t as sharp or decisive as it has been in the past, but it made history.

Finally.

After three years of postseason heartbreak, the Bulldogs captured their first Sac-Joaquin Section team title on Wednesday.

The four-time defending Western Athletic Conference champions edged Manteca in a thrilling 5-4 victory at Ceres High in the inaugural Division III final.

After scaring the section’s top Division II programs the last three years, Ceres welcomed the opportunity to match its talent against a school of similar size.

The Bulldogs encountered a worthy opponent in Manteca (19-4), which came within one set of its own celebration.

The Buffaloes have won six of the last 10 VOL championships, all under Frank Fontana, but were searching for their first section team title.

Ceres made sure their hunt continues.

“We did it. It was nice. It all came together,” said Ceres coach Bryan Harden, whose team lost to 12-time section champion Rio Americano in the semifinal a year ago, 5-4.

Ceres advanced to the D-II final in 2013 but was beaten by Bella Vista. In 2012, the Bulldogs pushed eventual runner-up Granite Bay in a second-round loss. Today, Granite Bay competes in D-I.

“We’ve been knocking hard and heavy on that door for several years now, and we finally knocked it in,” Harden added. “It was nice, but a very intense, very tough match.”

The final was decided in the last match, keeping the hundreds gathered around the cyclone fencing in suspense.

In the deciding match, the Bulldogs’ top-seeded doubles team of Manny Jimenez and Dennis Phomalinh dug an early hole, dropping the opening set 7-5.

“Honestly, they didn’t do anything different. They just started hitting more shots. They were playing OK, but they weren’t playing their best tennis,” Harden said. “It finally clicked, and once they got rolling ... ”

The Buffaloes were helpless against the momentum shift.

Jimenez and Phomalinh rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the second set and clinched the section title with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory.

Ceres won four of the six singles matches, highlighted by comfortable straight-set victories by No. 1 Nolan McCaig (6-1, 6-0), No. 2 Julio Ochoa (6-2, 6-2) and No. 4 Rene Cortes (6-3, 6-0).

No. 3 Chase Harden, the coach’s son and one of only two seniors on the Bulldogs’ starting ladder, won 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

Harden and Ochoa, a former Stanislaus District Player of the Year, leave behind a gold-leafed legacy.

Together, the four-year players have won four Western Athletic Conference championships, helped Ceres amass a 107-5 record and helped guide the program to its first section title.

More impressively, Ochoa has played the last two years with a torn labrum in his right shoulder, forcing him to serve underhand.

“It was the cherry,” coach Bryan Harden said of the section banner presented to him after the match.

The Buffaloes stayed within striking distance by winning the fifth and sixth singles slots. Kyle Thornberg and Spencer Jackson recorded 6-3, 6-3 victories to draw the Buffs within 4-2.

The match swung in Manteca’s favor aftertwo impressive doubles victories at the back of the ladder.

No. 3 tandem Yayha Shabbar and Matt Pabla won 6-4, 6-2, and No. 2 Edvin Pepic and Dhillon Patel knotted the team score 4-4 with a 6-2, 7-5 victory.

When the Buffaloes seized the opening set of the No. 1 doubles match, Bulldog faithful cringed.

“It could have went either way,” Harden said.

The Bulldogs showed their championship mettle at the finish, climbing out of a three-game hole in the second set of the deciding match.

“You have to keep fighting,” Bryan Harden said. “That’s what we did today.”

Experience played a factor, he added. The close calls of postseasons past have turned these Bulldogs into attack dogs.

Ceres went 27-0 this season, dominating many opponents.

McCaig will compete for a Division II individual title on Tuesday at Johnson Ranch in Roseville, beginning with a semifinal.

“We’ve been playing tough matches over the last three years,” Bryan Harden said. “Basically, our only losses are to section champions in Division II, no less, and we were right there. You gain valuable experience from that. You have to see it before you can move on.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Attack Dogs: Ceres tennis nets inaugural Sac-Joaquin Section D-III team title."