Sierra senior Brady Alves earned a third berth to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II Individual Tournament on Tuesday at Patterson High, where he defeated Matthew Yakligian of Oakdale 6-0, 6-1 for third place in the Valley Oak League Singles Tournament.
Team champion Mountain House will have two players, Eidan Mercado and Adhyatma Rajan, duke it out for the league title Thursday during the doubles tournament. Manteca’s two-time reigning titlist Yok Chai Ma, who downed Alves in the last two finals, opted out of the singles tournament with hopes of making a deep run in doubles.
Seeded third, Alves started with a first-round bye before defeating Oakdale’s Jaxton Marler 8-2 and Mountain House’s Aprameya Rao, 8-6. He was knocked into the third-place match by Rajan, who coasted in the semifinal, 6-0, 6-1.
Sierra, the team runner-up, had three players reach at least the quarterfinal round and nearly had an all-Timberwolves third-place match. Ashton Hillard coasted past his first two opponents before getting edged out by Yakligan, 9-8 (3). Oliver Naven also won two matches but ran into top-seeded Mercado and lost, 8-0.
The SJS Individual Tournament is on May 19-20 at Johnson Ranch Racquet Club in Roseville.
BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Sierra 3, Manteca 2
The host Timberwolves (8-3, 18-12 overall) spoiled Manteca’s bid to earn a fourth consecutive VOL title with the stunning 24-26, 25-22, 25-18, 23-25, 15-17 victory.
League newcomer Mountain House (11-1, 22-5) gets to have the championship all to itself.
Jesus Gomez led the Buffaloes (10-2, 20-8) with 18 kills and 15 digs. Setter Mark Bondoc also produced a double-double with 35 assists and 17 digs. Rob Hevener added nine kills and eight blocks. Logan Romriell chipped in seven kills and 10 digs.
With an automatic playoff berth now clinched, third-place Sierra wraps up regular-season play tonight at East Union.
SOFTBALL
East Union 9, Patterson 2
At Northgate Softball Complex, the Lancers (3-7 VOL, 10-12 overall) inched closer to locking up an at-large berth to the SJS playoffs.
Patterson (3-7, 9-12), also vying for a spot in the postseason, jumped ahead with a run in the top of the first inning, but the Lancers tied it up in the bottom half and rallied for four in the fifth and four more in the sixth to race away with it.
