Scotts Valley freshman Cody Rakela has established himself as the top tennis player in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League.
Rakela, a freshman and the No.1 singles player for the Falcons, swept through league undefeated and all but unchallenged.
He won the SCCAL title Wednesday, April 13, with a dominant 6-0, 6-0 win over fellow freshman Alex Sakovics-Matutes of Santa Cruz High.
Many of the top veteran players in the SCCAL opted out of the singles tournament in favor of playing doubles for a chance to advance to the Central Coast Section tournament without playing Rakela.
Rakela, who turned 15 three weeks ago, has played tennis since age 4. At a young age, he was ranked third in Northern California and 61st in the nation in the 14-and-under age group.
Even so, he isn’t overconfident.
“I am going to have my work cut out for me at CCS,” Rakela said. “The No. 1 and 2 players in NorCal are in San Jose, and I will be lucky if I beat them.”
Scotts Valley finished second in the league as a team, losing to Santa Cruz High, 4-3, in the league championship.
“It’s been a weird year for us,” Falcon head coach Greg Weston said. “Last season’s No. 1 singles player decided not to play at all this year, which made us shuffle a bunch of things around.”
The doubles team of Ryan Miller and Jordan Rein finished second behind Santa Cruz twins Sam and Jacob Imsland.
“Those two are on a mission,” San Lorenzo Valley head coach Wayne Sandals said of the Cardinals’ twins. “They have been runners-up for the last two seasons, so this is their big chance to win it all as seniors.”
Cougars finish fourth
San Lorenzo Valley finished fourth in the SCCAL this season. Freshman Marty Varner earned the No.1 spot for the Cougars over junior Chris Holle, who played No. 2 for SLV.
Varner fell in the first round of the SCCAL tournament, 6-1, 6-1, to Sokovics-Matutes, the eventual runner-up.
Holle also fell in the first round, losing to Aptos’ Matias Urzua, 6-1, 6-0.
“This has been a really scrambled season for us, weather wise,” Sandals said. “We are a young team and really didn’t get to practice, because whenever it wasn’t raining, instead of practicing, we had to play a match.”
