Deming, Rogers, Schoenheit play in CIF tennis tournament

Three of Fallbrook High School’s boys tennis players competed in the CIF tournament May 28 - June 3 at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.

Ryder Rogers and Scott Schoenheit comprised a doubles team while Derek Deming played in the singles bracket. Ryder and Schoenheit won their first-round match before a loss in the second round. Deming was also a first-round winner while being eliminated in the second round.

The first two doubles rounds were played May 28. Rogers and Schoenheit began the tournament with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Sebastian Bianconi-Quinones and Bhargav Munukutia of High Tech High School.

Rogers and Schoenheit then faced the Canyon Crest Academy duo of Val Poiset and Ryan Preiss. Poiset and Preiss took a 6-2 victory in the first set. Rogers and Schoenheit won the second set by a 6-3 score. The CIF tournament does not utilize a full third set if the first two sets are split; rather a tiebreaker to ten points is played. Poiset and Preiss advanced to the next round with a 10-5 victory in the tiebreaking set.

“Scott and Ryder had a real chance of winning their match,” said Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway.

The match ended the high school tennis career of Schoenheit, who was a senior. Rogers and Deming were juniors during the 2013 season.

Singles play also began with two May 28 rounds. Deming opened the tournament with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Russell Edralin of Mount Miguel High School. Deming then faced Jose Gallastegui of Vincent Memorial, who defeated Deming in 6-2 and 7-5 sets.

Berths in the CIF tournament are determined by finishes at the league tournament. In the Avocado West League tournament Deming was third while Rogers and Schoenheit took fifth place.

“I thought they had a better chance if one of them played singles and the other two played doubles just because of the depth of the La Costa Canyon team,” Lenaway said. “Just kind of made sense to put Scott and Ryder together.”

La Costa Canyon swept the top four doubles positions. “They’re just so much better than the rest of the teams in our league,” Lenaway said.

Rogers and Schoenheit were the only doubles team from another Avocado West League school to earn a berth in the CIF tournament.