Carson holds off Douglas in tennis match dubbed 'Candlestick Open'

Carson boys tennis coach Jeff Evans jokingly dubbed Thursday's match at Centennial Park as the "Candlestick Open."

The winds that are typically a part of Carson's tennis season finally arrived for its key Sierra League match with Douglas. Carson was able to hold off Douglas 12 1/2-10 in a well played match by both teams to improve to 3-1 in the Sierra League.

Carson set up a pivotal match Tuesday at South Tahoe that should go a long ways in determining if it advances to the Northern Nevada zone playoffs. Last year, Tahoe beat Carson in a contest that went down to a final match decided in a tiebreaker.

Since Thursday was the first real windy day of the season, the homecourt advantage against Douglas may have not been as great as in past seasons. On many occassions, those on the court looked like players at Candlestick Park trying to judge a pop up when going after the ball.

"I think the wind really played havoc with both teams," Evans said. "Normally it's a homecourt advantage for us."

The doubles teams of Karl Schulz and Nick Weeks and Zach Caron and Jeff Knaus came up big for Carson. Schulz and Weeks swept three matches. "That was one more win than I was planning for," Evans said.

Knaus and Caron won 6-1 in their third round match that clinched the team win, with the final three singles matches still on the court.

"Without that win, we have to get two of three singles matches, which we did not do," Evans said.

Martin Ellis won 6-2 for Carson's only singles win in the third round. Anthony Guidabaldi of Douglas beat Carson's Josh Brekken 6-4 in the third round in a match between two players who could go far in the Northern Nevada zone individual tournament.

Brekken won his other two matches 6-0, 6-1 and is now 16-2 on the season. Guidabaldi also has lost just twice this season to the No. 1 players from Reno and Galena.

Tyler Coats of Douglas won his third round match 6-4. Douglas Coach Michael Schneider said Coats and Guidabaldi could both do well in the zone playoffs.

The most entertaining match of the day came between Ellis and Guidabadli. Ellis broke serve with an overhead volley for a 5-4 lead. But with the score tied 5-5, Guidabaldi fought through several deuces to take a 6-5 lead and went on to win 7-5.

Ellis also beat Coats 6-4 and Andy Araza won 6-2 and Jon McDonald and Gideon Hermanns won 6-2 for Carson. For Douglas in doubles, Travis Baker and Will Orrick and Jeff Groves and Dom Prosser each won two matches and Guidabaldi swept his three matches.

"I think we're probably pretty evenly matched," Schneider said. "It was fun for me to watch."