Coast Union tennis roster deeper in 2016

The Coast Union tennis team took three road trips during the first week of the season, and while the Broncos were victorious in just one, Coach Ron Ruggles is confident that a fine season lies ahead.

On Monday, Feb. 22, the Broncos took on Orcutt Academy at Hancock College (in Santa Maria — there are no courts at Orcutt) and lost by one match, 10-8.

“It was really, really close throughout,” Ruggles explained.

The singles player who played Broncos top seed Alexis Mireles was in the CIF tournament last spring, and was “really good,” Ruggles reported. But Mireles beat him — for the first time in the past few years — 6-4.

The next day, Tuesday, the team went back to Santa Maria to play the Saints and came away a winner, 13-5. The Santa Maria High School team did not have the talent and experience to keep up with Coast Union, Ruggles remarked.

On Thursday, Feb. 25, the Broncos traveled to Laguna Blanca. Unfortunately for the coach, Coast Union held its Winter Fest talent show that day which meant that “a lot of my good players did not go to Santa Barbara for the match” — which the Broncos lost 13-5.

Mireles faced two “really, really strong players” with CIF tournament experience and lost two of his “really close” sets, 4-6 and 2-6.

Reviewing his talent for the 2016 season, Ruggles said his number two seed from last year, Jimmy Welch is not on the team; Welch’s father passed away this year, so Welch has chosen not to play.

Ruggles’ new No. 2 seed is senior Max Rodriguez, who practiced “all summer long” with Mireles and has shown strong desire to improve. Another player who practiced hard this past offseason is Omar Alarcon, who has secured the No. 3 seed for the team. “Max and Omar are not as strong as Alexis,” Ruggles said. “But they’re strong. Against mediocre teams this spring, they’ll probably win. “We have a solid, solid high school team, all the way through doubles — every single doubles team is very solid — and we have depth, more than we have ever had.

“This is the first time I’ve had this kind of depth on a boys team. I have people behind the people,” Ruggles concluded.

The next home match for the tennis team is at 3:30 p.m. Monday, March 7, against Paso Robles.

This story was originally published March 2, 2016 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Coast Union tennis roster deeper in 2016."