Ceres High School's varsity boys tennis team participated in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs for the seventh year in a row this past week.

The third-place Bulldogs of the Western Athletic Conference lost 6-3 to Central Catholic in the Division-III tournament on May 2 at Del Rio Golf & Country Club.

The Raiders finished third in the Valley Oak League standings.

"It was a competitive match," Ceres High head coach Brandon Moring said. "It could have gone either way. Getting swept in doubles was the deciding factor. We also needed to do better than splitting the singles. We just didn't play well. They had a little more experience."

Central Catholic won on the strength of its doubles play. The Raiders won all three matches.

Charles Lo and Aiden Moore lost 6-2, 6-1 to Central Catholic's Thomas Dubb and John Dunn in No. 1 doubles play.

Juan Hernandez and Adrian Covarrubias lost 6-3, 6-4 to Will Lyons and Dane Juarez in No. 2 doubles play.

Will Rodriguez and Angelo Marino lost 6-3, 6-4 to Jacob Schali and Jacob Hill in No. 3 doubles play.

The Bulldogs won three of six singles matches versus the Raiders.

Nolan McCaig defeated Central Catholic's Conor Fenton 6-1, 6-0 in No. 1 singles play.

Donnavin Koeurn defeated Justin Forte 6-3, 6-0 in No. 5 singles play.

Jorge Campos defeated Jared Alamo 6-2, 6-3 in No. 6 singles play.

Christian Pimentel lost 6-2, 6-2 to Sam Nicholson in No. 2 singles play.

Chris Padilla lost 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in No. 3 singles play.

Bruno de la Torre lost 6-2, 6-3 to Angelo Traina in No. 4 singles play.

Ceres High maintained its winning tradition this spring despite competing with a new starting lineup.

Julio Ochoa (singles), Chase Harden (singles), Rene Cortes (singles), Jose Ortega (singles), Manny Jimenez (doubles), Dennis Phommalinh (doubles), Jorge Ruiz (double) and Julian Rodriguez (doubles) were lost to graduation.

Alex Torres (doubles) opted to play baseball.

Manuel Lazcano (doubles) transferred to Central Valley.

The Bulldogs (10-5, 8-4) secured the WAC's third and final playoff berth in 2016.

Ceres High also improved its all-time record versus crosstown-rival Central Valley to 20-0. The Bulldogs beat the Hawks twice (6-3, 8-1).

"I'm really proud of them," Moring said. "We have a lot of young guys without a lot of tennis matches under their belts. It definitely was a rebuilding year for us. It didn't change our expectation. The expectation will always be to fight for league championships. That's our goal."