Tennis rematch between Modesto’s McCaig and Beyer’s Lewis fizzles

Modesto High School freshman Coby McCaig defeated his opponent in the No. 1 singles match against Beyer.

Normally, news like that would merit a 100-point headline, since the Patriots’ top singles performer is reigning Player of the Year Ryan Lewis.

But Lewis was a no-show for Tuesday’s rematch between the Modesto Metro Conference’s top two players, focusing instead on his training for the NorCal Junior Excellence tournament at Rio Del Oro Racquet Club in Sacramento.

“It didn’t really matter to me,” said McCaig, whose only league loss this year was a 6-0, 3-6, 10-8 setback to Lewis at Beyer. “If I play him, I play him.”

Instead, McCaig breezed past Joel Lima, the Patriots’ usual No. 2 singles player, 6-0, 6-0 in leading his team to a 9-0 blanking of the Patriots.

“Usually, the number ones play first, but we had to wait last time,” said McCaig, whose older brother, Nolan, is the No. 1 singles player at Ceres. “I felt like I could’ve done better if we didn’t have to wait.”

“He’s been working pretty hard to play this game today,” said Modesto coach Scott Mitchell, whose team is battling with Downey and Enochs for the second and third playoff spots behind first-place Gregori. “He’s spent several hours working with one of our other guys, and other people. So he was really excited for this match, but it just didn’t happen today.”

But it could happen again April 28 if they reach the championship match of the MMC singles tournament at Modesto Junior College.

“I have a feeling that they will, yeah,” Mitchell said.

McCaig agreed.

“We’re probably going to play in the finals no matter what,” McCaig said. “So we’ll see what happens when we play. I feel like I have a good chance against him.”

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 6:29 PM with the headline "Tennis rematch between Modesto’s McCaig and Beyer’s Lewis fizzles."