Hosting Ripon and traveling to face Ripon Christian, the Escalon tennis boys split their matches this past week.

It was the first action of the season – with just the boys playing right now under the new COVID-19 alignment, facing off with primarily Valley Oak League teams as opposed to Trans-Valley League squads.

Returning as coach is Jackey Blakeley, who said her team topped Ripon by a 4-3 final and then lost a 5-2 decision to Ripon Christian.

“Due to COVID we were moved out of the TVL and put into the VOL, playing East Union, Manteca, Central Catholic, Sierra, Oakdale, Kimball, Ripon Christian and Ripon,” Blakely explained.

Ripon and Ripon Christian are fellow TVL schools making the one-year move to the VOL.

“We played Ripon on Tuesday (Feb. 16) at Escalon and won four out of seven matches, we won three singles and one doubles match,” the coach said. “On Thursday we played at Ripon Community Center against Ripon Christian. We ended up winning one of our singles matches and one of our doubles matches.”

This week, the team was scheduled to be on the road at Kimball on Feb. 23 after The Times went to press and then host Central Catholic on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 3:30 p.m.

They are also scheduled to host Weston Ranch on Tuesday, March 2 at 3:30 p.m.

“We are looking forward to the rest of our season with a goal simply to have fun and enjoy playing tennis,” said Blakeley.