Vars boys’ tennis clinches narrow victory over Sacred Heart in 4–3 win
By Yolanda Feng
The varsity tennis team defeated the Sacred Heart Irish in a close 4–3 non-league victory on April 7. The team is currently dominating over the Academic Athletic Association league, holding first place with a league record of 6–0.
In the singles matches, freshman Kyle Awad started his match slow, losing the first set 6–3. However, Awad bounced back from an unsteady start, taking the second set 6–3 and coming out on top 10–8 in the tiebreaker. Junior Michael Gee tried net-rushing during his match and conquered his opponent 6–1 and 6–3. Junior Jacob Goldstein was defeated by his opponent 6–4, 7–5. Senior Robert Shi was unable to obtain a win over an Irish in his first singles match this season, losing 6–2, 6–1.
In the doubles matches, senior co-captains James Sutton and Maxwell Ho took on a lengthy match against the Irish, taking the first set 6–3, but fell short of a win, losing the other set 7–5 and 10–8 in the tiebreaker. Ho’s highlight of the match was during one of his serve points, when Ho sliced the ball, their opponent returned with a deep shot, and then Sutton fell back slightly to hit the ball just over the net. It was challenging for Sutton and Ho to play the long match because they had to change their strategies and continuously adapt throughout the game, especially mentally, according to Ho.
Juniors Daniel Stepanian and Trevor Leong took over the opposing Irish pair 6–0, 6–0. Senior Ethan Trinh and sophomore Andrew Trinh also defeated their opponents 6–3, 6–2.
The team took care of business against the Aragon Dons on April 11, coming out on top 5–2. Their next league game is against the Wallenberg Bulldogs at Golden Gate Park today at 3:30 p.m.