No. 1 Catalina Foothills beat No. 9 Sahuarita 5-0 on Wednesday to advance to the Division II semifinal round for the 11th straight season. The Falcons lost to eventual state champion Ironwood Ridge in the semifinal round in 2013 and it was the last playoff loss for the Falcons, with an incredible 146-2 record since the end of that season, which means nine straight championships and 17 overall. Only COVID got in the way.

Current head coach Jeffry Bloomberg has seven state titles since 2016 to go along with four singles championships and three doubles championships during his tenure.

The Falcons lost to D-I top-seed Brophy 5-4 to start the season on March 12 and the team has given up only two points since with a 14-1 record heading into the semifinals where they will face No. 4 AZ College Prep (14-1) on Friday. The Knights lost to D-I power No. 2 Desert Mountain 8-3 on April 15. Catalina Foothills beat AZ College Prep 5-3 in the semifinal round last year.

Sahuarita (13-3) lost to Buena 8-1 on April 11 but the Mustangs avenged that regular season loss by knocking the Colts out of the state playoffs in the first round (5-2) on April 24. The other two losses came against Catalina Foothills.

D-II singles champion Austin Cohen beat Jacob Walton (6-1, 6-1) on the first court on Wednesday. Walton took No. 5 seed Dean Lanford of Notre Dame to the limit (3-6, 6-2, 13-11) in Round 2 of the D-II singles playoffs on Saturday.

Catalina Foothills standout Jason Jia beat Nicholas Johnson (6-0, 6-0) on the second court. Jia made it to the D-II quarterfinal round as the No. 3 seed. Johnson joined Jarom Hammerquist in D-II doubles competition and the duo made it to the quarterfinal round for Sahuarita. The Catalina Foothills doubles team of Santiago Astengo Jaime and Nicholas Barrutia Pierson also made it to the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs as the No. 5 seed. Jaime and Pierson won their matches against Sahuarita.

Cohen won a state doubles title in 2022 with his brother Grant and Jia won a state doubles title last year with Santiago Lietzau as his partner.

Jacob Walton. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

CATALINA FOOTHILLS 5, SAHUARITA 0

1 Austin Cohen over Jacob Walton (6-1, 6-1)

2 Jason Jia over Nicholas Johnson (6-0, 6-0)

3 Nicholas Barrutia Pierson over Jarom Hammerquist (6-0, 6-1)

4 Santiago Astengo Jaime over Andrew Ryan (6-0, 3-6, 10-5)

6 Aaron Zeldin over Jacob Magallanes (6-0, 6-0)