The Carson boys tennis team received several clutch performances to keep its hopes alive of at least finishing in the top four in the Sierra League.
Carson defeated North Tahoe 13-9 1/2 on Tuesday at Centennial Park. The Senators have lost to Reno and Douglas, so it looks like Carson is now playing for third place in league play.
The Senators still have league matches left with Manogue and South Tahoe. Carson needs to split those two matches to finish in the top four in league play.
The significance of a top four finish is that qualifies Carson for the zone team playoffs and the Senators would also send two singles players and two doubles teams into the zone tournament. If Carson (3-3, 3-2) fails to place in the top four, it wouldn't qualify for the zone playoffs and would be able to send only one in singles and one in doubles to the zone tournament.
Against North Tahoe, Carson won eight of nine doubles matches. A key win came in the first round when Ash Dauenhauer and Karl Schulz were able to come back for a 7-6 (8-6) win.
Down 5-6, Dauenhauer held serve to force a tiebreaker. At 5-6 in the tiebreaker, Dauenhauer and Schulz saved a match point. Schulz gave Carson a 7-6 lead with a passing shot and Dauenhauer came through with a service winner on match point.
The win enabled Carson to go into the final round tied with North Tahoe at 7 1/2 - 7 1/2.
In the third round, Carson's No. 3 team of Baron Brooks and Tim Suchsland beat North Tahoe's No. 2 team 6-2 to clinch the win. "That is what put us over the top," Carson coach Jeff Evans said.
Dauenhauer and Schulz swept their matches as did Josh Brekken and Andy Araza in doubles. Dauenhauer and Schulz also won 6-0, 6-0 and Brekken and Araza won 6-3, 6-0, 6-0. Brooks and Suchsland won 6-2 to pick up Carson's other win in doubles.
After being shut out in singles last week in a loss to Douglas, Zach Caron was finally able to break through in singles with a 6-4 win against North Tahoe.
"It's nice to not see all ones on the other column," Evans said. "We've just got to start picking up more singles wins."