De Leon Saves Best Tennis for Last, Defeats Modesto Community College in Final Match

De Leon Saves Best Tennis for Last, Defeats Modesto Community College in Final Match

Sumter, SC—Kaiser De Leon had a rough go of it at the 2014 USTA/ITA National Small College Championships, losing to Laredo's Csongor Toth of Laredo, 6-2, 6-2, and Celestin Nkoueleue of Georgia Perimeter, 6-2, 6-1, in his first two matches at the Palmetto Tennis Center on Thursday and Friday.

Saturday, however, was a different story with a happier ending.  De Leon outlasted Modesto Community College's Jose Gonzales, 6-4, 6-4.  In both sets, De Leon charged back from 3-4 deficits to take the last three games of each set.

"It was evident from Kaiser's first service game that Gonzales was going to have a difficult time returning Kaiser's spin serve," Coach Wright said.  "From that point on, Kaiser went into spin cycle, imparting even more spin to his serves.  On the other hand, Kaiser had an equally tough time returning his opponent's serve.  The match essentially boiled down to who could put the serve into play and then go on to win those points.  That person was Kaiser."