By Ian Rapoport
Staff Writer
In the climax of the season, the Mustangs proved superior over their competition.
In an away match on Friday, May 10 the Mustangs defeated Mariana High School 12-6. The win is the second CIF win for the Mustangs, and they will now proceed to quarter finals.
“Mariana was a better team that we played in our first round,” coach Joe Ciasulli. “We could have done a little better, but overall we did well.”
In singles, sophomore Evan Han won one of two games and freshmen Alex Gaal and Joey Rotheram both won two out of their three games. In doubles, the team of freshman Alec Zirkelbach with senior Michael Carella won all three of their games, while the team of junior Zak Vand with sophomore Jason Wu won two out of three games.
“When a match is not really close it is hard to have any real stand out moments,” Ciasulli said. “For the most part everyone played another strong match.”
The Mustangs stumbled in the first round of the match, placing the score at 4-2 in favor of Mariana. Costa came back strong during the second round with a score of 9-5, securing the Mustangs a win before even going into the third.
“Being in the second round of CIF and winning a match after two rounds is pretty cool,” Ciasulli said. “I am happy with that.”
This marks a major accomplishment for the Mustangs. By winning their first match they already have proceeded farther than their performance from last year, and continuing to the quarterfinals has rarely been done in the team’s history.
“I have only had one other team that has gotten as far as the quarter finals, so this is big,” Ciasulli said. “Being the number seven team in California is also big. I am proud of the guys.”
This win continues the Mustangs’ successful season. Mira Costa is now Currently 19-3 overall, and finished 6-2 in bay league.
“It has been a great season,” Ciasulli said. “It has been as good as we could have expected. A lot of times you could say we could have done this or that better. This is as good as we could get.”
The Mustangs next match will be the quarterfinals played at home. Costa faces Corona High School on Monday, May 13.
“Corona is the number two team in California. There is a large gap in terms of skill between the top two teams and everyone else. We’ll lace ‘em up and give it our best shot.”
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