Eagles' Zeb Duket wins CIF Central Section singles championship
Bakersfield Christian High senior tennis player Zeb Duket won four matches in two days, including a three-set championship-match victory over Clovis East High’s Riley King to capture the CIF Central Section Individuals Tournament singles title.
The third-seeded Duket, entering his first singles appearance in the section tournament, defeated No. 1 King for the title Saturday by 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 at Clovis East High.
Prior to the title match, Duket won two matches on Friday, a 6-0, 6-2 decision against Orcutt Academy Etienne Maletz and then a three-set battle with Clovis West’s Ray Roush, 2-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Duket's semifinal match was a rematch of the South Yosemite Valley League singles championship match against Bakersfield Christian sophomore teammate Cade Hiebert.
Duket, who lost the the league finals match with Hiebert in three sets in what both players confirmed was their first head-to-head meeting, avenged it with a 7-6, 6-2 victory on Saturday.
While Duket played in the title match, Hiebert, who had wins against Immanuel’s Micah Goertzen at 6-3, 6-0 and Sanger’s Matthew Bedrosian at 7-6, 6-3, played in a third-place match on Saturday afternoon. Clovis North’s David Buxman defeated Hiebert 6-2, 7-5.
Duket and Hiebert were two of four local singles players in the tournament. Frontier’s Clayton Villarreal defeated Orcutt Academy’s Benedikt Rohrich 6-2, 6-1 before losing to Clovis East’s King 6-4, 6-2. Liberty’s Jaden Lee lost in the opening round to Buchanan’s Dempsey Garud 6-0, 6-2.
Furthermore, four local doubles teams competed in the section tournament. Liberty’s Keen Nguyen and Luca Garone were the lone team to reach as far as the semifinals and then also competed in the third-place match.
Clovis North’s doubles team of Kendrick Hsu and Alex Perry did a number on the local doubles entrants, defeating three of the four teams.
While Nguyen and Garone beat Mason Macdonald and Alex Corbo, of San Luis Obispo, 6-0, 6-4 and Clovis West’s Matthew Yang and Ben Burgess 6-3, 6-2. Arroyo Grande’s Lucas Lehman and Lance Willkomm defeated Nguyen and Garone 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals.
In the third-place match, Hsu and Perry won 7-5, 6-3 to end Nguyen and Garone’s season.
Bakersfield’s Evan Noel and Ryan Rosales defeated Santa Maria St. Joseph’s Cooper Smith and Gabriel Hendricks 6-4, 6-3, but lost to Hsu and Perry 6-2, 6-2. Two teams lost their opening-round match, Bakersfield Christian’s David Hair and Adrian Araya fell to Sanger’s Gael Vaca and Austin Hauff 6-4, 7-6 and Stockdale’s Kyle Olouch and Peter Okh lost to Hsu and Perry 6-1, 6-2.
