{"id":43019,"date":"2026-05-20T19:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:33:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-17T17:59:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T17:59:02","slug":"stallions-roll-to-div-v-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/stallions-roll-to-div-v-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Stallions roll to Div. V title"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Madera South Stallions boys tennis team wasted little time in dispensing the second-seeded Granite Hills Grizzlies to win its first-ever Central Section title.<\/p>

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The Stallions boys tennis team was full of firsts this year under first-year head coach Nathan Melchor. Not only did the Stallions win their first Central Section title, they finished their first undefeated season (21-0), first North Yosemite League title, first singles champion (Kevin Franco) and first doubles champions (Leo Vasquez and Rylan Xiong)<\/p>

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\u201cMy first year has been pretty wild, and a dream. 21-0 is nothing more you can ask for,\u201d Melchor said. \u201cI will remember spending time with the team and making memories. Being here my first time as a head coach has been a blessing. I\u2019m out of the shadows now, and I\u2019m creating a name for myself in a program that I\u2019m building here.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cI\u2019m so excited. After four years and two semifinal losses, finally we got it,\u201d Franco said. \u201cI\u2019m really thankful for all of these guys. We have been working for so long. I\u2019m proud of them. We went undefeated.\u201d<\/p>

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Then, Melchor joined his brother, Mark with the Torres boys tennis team, as the first brother coaches to win a Central Section title in the same year for different teams.<\/p>

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However, the focus was on the boys Tuesday morning in a match that was rescheduled to 10:30 a.m. from 4 p.m. because of the impending heat.<\/p>

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The doubles teams started off the match. The No. 1 team of Franco and Alfredo Hernandez had little trouble defeating their opponents. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead, and closed out the match, 8-1.<\/p>

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The No. 3 doubles team of Leo Vasquez and Kevin Rendon fell behind, 4-3, and 5-4. They rallied by winning the final three games for an 8-5 win.<\/p>

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The No. 2 doubles team of Daniel Martinez and Edwinn Vasquez took a 3-2 lead. However, they lost four straight points, and eventually lost the match, 8-5.<\/p>

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With a 2-1 lead heading into doubles, Franco was confident his team would find three victories in the six singles matches.<\/p>

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\u201cI feel like our doubles are really strong this year,\u201d Franco said.<\/p>

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No. 1 singles, Franco, had an easy time. He won his first set, 6-0, and then won the second set, 6-2, to come off the court first.<\/p>

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\u201cWith Kevin, and the rest of the boys, I told them their jobs. Kevin is the anchor, he\u2019s my No. 1. He has to hold it down,\u201d Melchor said. \u201cHe knows his job and we hold him to high expectations.\u201d<\/p>

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After his win, Franco went to the next court over to root on No. 2, Martinez. He jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, but lost three of the next four games. He still led, 4-3, and closed the set with two wins for a 6-3 win. He won the first three games of the second set and closed with three straight for a 6-1 win for Madera South\u2019s fourth win.<\/p>

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The Stallions needed just one win, and the focus moved to the far courts with No. 5 Emilio Ruiz and No. 6, Rylan Xiong.<\/p>

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\u201cI feel like we were motivating each other. I felt like, \u2018Let\u2019s go. Vamos,\u2019\u201d Franco said.<\/p>

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Ruiz won his first set by a 6-3 score. He led, 4-1, but lost two straight games before finishing the set with two wins. Xiong jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but lost two straight before winning three of the next four for a 6-3 lead.<\/p>

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Ruiz finished out his opponent by winning the final five games while Xiong did the same.<\/p>

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When the final point was put away, the Stallions were left in limbo to figure out if that was it. Both Xiong and Ruiz went to the net to shake their opponents\u2019 hands at the same time to give the Stallions the wins they needed for the championship.<\/p>

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\u201cThey all have jobs. I call my No. 5 and No. 6 my anchors. They have to hold down their points. If it\u2019s not the 1 or 2, it\u2019s the 5 and 6. That\u2019s how tennis goes,\u201d Melchor said. \u201cThey knew the pressure that\u2019s on them, and they accomplished it really well.\u201d<\/p>

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That set off the celebration for a Central Section title. No. 3 Alfredo Hernandez and No. 4 Leo Vasquez didn\u2019t get a chance to finish their match, and celebrated with the team.<\/p>

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\u201cI\u2019m truly blessed. I couldn\u2019t have been here with out them. I appreciate them,\u201d Melchor said.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Madera South Stallions boys tennis team wasted little time in dispensing the second-seeded Granite Hills Grizzlies to win its first-ever Central Section title. The Stallions boys tennis team was full of firsts this year under first-year head coach Nathan Melchor. Not only did the Stallions win their first Central Section title, they finished their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":43005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-43019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-schools"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43901,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43019\/revisions\/43901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}