After losing its first Freeway League match to private school Crean Lutheran of Irvine at home, the boys tennis team rebounded for its first win in its Tuesday, April 1, match against Cypress High School in another home affair.
The Lancers (2-2) defeated the Centurions 13-5 despite what many players and coaches described as harsh, windy conditions.
“The wind was blowing a lot, so we all felt uneasy before the game because that can influence the play,” head coach Christopher Ghareebo said after the match was over. “But I’m glad we were able to pull through clean and win.”
Most of the Lancers’ singles players pulled through for the team; No. 1 singles player and captain, senior Richard Lu, won all three of his matches, 6-1, 6-0 and 6-0.
Meanwhile, No. 2 and No. 3 players, sophomore Dominator Tenazas and freshman Kyle Kang, respectively, gave up a set apiece in the three games they played.
Although the weather was a factor, Lu said he remained confident in his skills.
“Before I started playing, I was honestly really nervous because the wind was so bad, but I realized the weather isn’t affecting just me but the other player as well,” the senior said. “So I just took it easy and tried my best, and the results reflected that.”
As for the doubles matches, however, Ghareebo said the slow start worried him as No. 1 and No. 2 doubles players lost their first matches.
“A lot of our players were not performing well in the beginning, probably because of the gust of wind, and that kind of was where I saw our flaws,” the head coach said. “So since the singles players were doing great already, I mainly focused on observing the doubles matches to jot down areas for improvement.”
But despite the coach’s concerns, the doubles players — No. 1 freshmen Julian Yoon and Florenzo Tenazas, No. 2 seniors Matthew Ma and Nathan Lee and No. 3 senior Derrick Sun and junior Leo Lee — each won two sets, which resulted in their victory with 6-3.
No. 2 doubles player senior Matthew Ma said he used this chance to learn and grow for the future.
“We made a lot of errors today, like serving mistakes,” Ma said. “The wind shouldn’t be blamed because at the end of the day, it’s the skill that matters, and I made a lot of mistakes with my serves; but I’ll be using this time to reflect and do better for later games.”
The team lost their away game 7-11 on Thursday, April 3, against Brea Olinda (3-0). However, it got back up for another away game on Monday, April 7, against Esperanza (1-3) on Tuesday, April 8, with a score of 14-4.
