The Lodi Flames won their sixth consecutive varsity boys tennis match Tuesday, beating the Tokay Tigers 5-0 at Tokay High School.

The Flames, fresh off a 3-2 upset of Lincoln, which has won the San Joaquin Athletic Association the past three years, dominated the Tigers.

"We knew Lodi was strong," Tokay coach Pete Flanders said. "We heard about the upset of Lincoln. Lodi is a fundamentally sound tennis team with great coaching."

The Flames are in first place in the San Joaquin Athletic Association.

"It's been a surprising season for us," Lodi coach John Stroh said. "I didn't expect us to be in this position."

Lodi's No. 1 singles player Mitch Hanner opened with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Cliff Sutherland.

No. 2 Roman Ranke then swatted Tom Woeful 6-1, 6-3 and No. 3 Danny Miladinovich defeated Alan Ishihara 6-3, 6-1 to lead the Flames to a clean sweep of the singles matches.

"Danny and Roman both played solid matches for us," Stroh said. "Danny has really been improving for us, giving us a solid No. 3 singles player and Roman has continued to play well following his last victory, which gave us the big win over Lincoln."

In doubles action, Lodi's tandem of Julian Castillo and Jack Zech backhanded Mike Navone and Rajan Patel 6-1, 6-4 and Jeff Machado and Adam Berten knocked off Tokay's Ricky Gill and Tyler Sinclair 6-7, 6-1, 6-3.

"We have a decent amount of depth which gives us a solid team from top to bottom," Stroh said.

Flanders said the Tigers look forward to the second half of the season.

"Our players played well, but the score didn't reflect that. We won points, but failed to string points together," Flanders said. "We finally have our team in place and we look forward to avenging losses that we shouldn't have had in the first half of league.

Lodi and Tokay are back in action Thursday, with the Flames traveling to face Bear Creek and the Tigers hosting Franklin.

The Tigers will have a shot at revenge against the Flames in the final match of the regular season for both teams April 25.

Lodi Flames boys tennis schedule.

Tokay Tigers boys tennis schedule.

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