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Bruins ousted fom tourney
Wentzell named top player in Northwest
Conference
Newberg girls team breaks drought, finishes
14th at state
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Making Newberg history |
NHS boys tennis players Matt Downey and Cesar `Toro'
Saldivar become the first doubles team in school history to win a
first round match at the Class 6A state tournament |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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PORTLAND — A single victory put two
unlikely teammates into Newberg High School history Thursday.
At the Class 6A state tennis tournament at the Portland Hills
Tennis Center, Newberg’s Matt Downey and Toro Saldivar were pushed
to three sets, including a pair of tiebreakers, by Lincoln’s Austin
Shiner and Isaac Dalke before they scored a 6-7 (2-6), 6-2, 7-6
(8-6) first-round victory. It marked the first time in school
history a singles or doubles boy’s team from Newberg won an
opening-round match at the state tournament.
After
their win, the two had no idea of the history they made.
“We just went out there and played our match,” Downey said. “We
were pretty excited. We thought we could win.”
Since the state tournament began in 1956, no boys player or team
from Newberg had ever won a first-round match before Thursday.
“For me, this means you can get whatever you want if you fight for
it,” said Saldivar, an exchange student from Mexico.
The two seem to balance each other. Saldivar, whose real name is
Cesar, but goes by the name of Toro “because he looks like a bull,”
the straight-laced Downey says, is more of a free spirit and keeps
things loose by joking around. Saldivar is senior at Newberg, but a
junior in his home city of Chihuahua in central Mexico. The city has
approximately 800,000 people — about 30 percent larger than Portland
— and a little more than a million in its metro area.
The team’s ability to balance each other is evident in how they
tell the story of how they paired up to play. Saldivar was simply
having a tough time cracking the varsity lineup. His first
consistent action came during the team’s April trip to a tournament
at North Medford when he had teamed up with junior Andrew Carlson.
Meanwhile, Downey was one of the varsity regulars. He played
approximately 90 percent of the season in singles and was having a
moderately successful season before he teamed up with Saldivar prior
to the district tournament.
“But he lost all of his matches and then comes the light named
Toro,” Salvador said joking.
“A light named Toro who didn’t play very many varsity matches,”
Downey shot back.
What actually happened was that Downey told Newberg coach Dave
Brown he wanted to play doubles, but Brown didn’t want to split any
of the doubles teams. Junior Colin Greve was a candidate, but he
wanted to stay in singles. That left Saldivar.
The duo hasn’t looked back since the district tournament where they
surprised the field by making it into the championship match. They
eventually fell to Jeff Matarrasi and John Stromberg of Tualatin,
6-4, 7-6 (13-11 tiebreaker). Saldivar and Downey held leads of 4-1
and 6-3 in the tiebreaker and held eight set point attempts, but
were unable to hold off Matarrasi and Stromberg.
The two continued on Thursday at the opening day of the state
tournament. In the first set, Saldivar and Downey were ahead 5-4
before Shiner and Dalke won consecutive games to take a 6-5 lead.
After Saldivar and Downey tied it, the set went into a tiebreaker.
Saldivar and Downey fell behind 6-1 in a game to seven points.
Downey’s forehand shot went long off the baseline to hand Shiner and
Dalke the win.
Saldivar and Downe regrouped in the second set. They got up 5-0 and
won 6-2. In the final set, Downey and Saldivar were fighting just to
stay alive in the match, mostly due to Dalke’s serve.
“His serve just kicked up at least my height — six feet — and it
was really hard to return,” Downey said. “He could put it anywhere.”
With the score knotted at 6-6, the rights to the win came down to
another tiebreaker. Just like in the first set tiebreaker, Downey
and Saldivar fell behind early.
“I was just hoping it wasn’t going to be like the first set
tiebreak where we got down really quick, but that’s what happened,”
Downey said.
But unlike the first set tiebreaker, Downey and Saldivar bounced
back. A pair of hard serves by Saldivar couldn’t be returned by
Shiner and Dalke pulled the Newberg team within 5-4. A double fault
by Dalke brought Saldivar and Downey within 6-5 before Dalke hit the
ball into the net to tie the game. Saldivar and Downey took its
first lead after Dalke was unable to return Downey’s serve. Saldivar
and Downey put the game away when Shiner double faulted.
“That match, we won it because we wanted it more, really,” Downey
said.
Saldivar and Downey were unable to maintain their momentum in the
second round Thursday. Their first-round victory propelled them into
facing the No. 3 seed in the tournament — Sprague’s Brad Girod and
Joe Wales — where they fell 6-1, 6-2. |
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From
May 19, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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