Oakdale holds off Sierra in boys tennis

Sierra dropped another 5-4 heartbreaker to Oakdale on Tuesday in Valley Oak League boys tennis action.

The latest result secures sole possession of second place for Oakdale (10-2), which also earned a higher seed than the Timberwolves (7-4 VOL, 8-7 overall) should they land in the same bracket for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.

Harshith Kumar gave Sierra a chance to steal the win Tuesday when he battled back from a 5-2 deficit in the second set to complete a 6-2, 7-5 sweep of Matthew Yakligian in the No. 1 singles match.

The T’wolves trailed 4-2 after the six singles matches concluded and needed to win all three doubles contests.

Oakdale was able to lock down the win with Anthony Llona and Mitchell Benning’s heated 6-4, 6-4 win over Arnav Sah and Sagar Shah.

Raunak Mahar and Reyansh Bansode won the No. 2 doubles match for Sierra 6-3, 6-2, while Johan Arroyo and Ashvin Gill prevailed at No. 3, 6-3, 6-3. Himmat Dosanjh came through to notch the Timberwolves’ other singles win, 6-1, 6-2 against Austin Speiller.

Sierra also had chances at No. 2 and 5 singles but lost in third-set tiebreakers. Ryan Alves was defeated by Jaxton Marler 6-3, 2-6, 2-10 in the No. 2 match, while Noah Brum fell short to Tristan McCarthy, 3-6, 6-3, 9-11.

The Timberwolves end their regular-season schedule today with a make-up match against visiting Patterson before hosting the VOL Tournament next week.