After winning its third consecutive Freeway League match last week against Esperanza, the boys tennis team maintained its hold on second place in the division while qualifying for a spot in the CIF playoffs. Crean Lutheran, a private school in Irvine, won the inaugural Freeway League title, going undefeated.
“We’ve been playing our best tennis by far for the last two weeks,” head coach Christopher Ghareebo said after the match had ended with a 10-7. “We had a tough first round of league, and then we came back, and we’ve just been playing excellent tennis; I think we’re peaking at the right time, right before CIF playoffs.”
The winning streak started Thursday, April 17, when the Lancers (5-3) took on Cypress High School (3-3), defeating the Centurions, 14-4.
Then on Tuesday, April 22, the boys squad faced Brea Olinda (4-3) and came out victorious again, 14-4.
By the time the Lancers welcomed Esperanza (2-2), they beamed with confidence, especially since the former beat the latter with a score of 14-4. Nevertheless, the final outcome remained close with the Aztecs falling short by only three games.
“We got a lot more comfortable,” the tennis coach said. “Our young guys got a lot of experience they needed to start being successful, especially on the doubles side of things, and everyone’s doing their part now.”
Ghareebo was referring to his No. 1 doubles team consisting of freshmen, Julian Kwon and Florenzo Tenazas, who won two of their three games.
“Coach Ghareebo helped me and my partner improve through helping us with the more mental and competitive aspects of the game, as we were already good with techniques and playing the game for fun,” Tenazas said. “Thanks to our coach walking us through these blocks in our game play, we have been successful in the past days, including today’s game; now that CIF is coming up, me and Julian are prepared to play for our team with our built foundation.”
Ghareebo’s No. 3 doubles team fared better than the underclassmen and the No. 2 players who lost all their games. Junior Leo Lee and senior Matthew Yoon swept all three games, 6-0, 6-1 and 6-2.
Similar to the freshmen, Lee said he was able to accomplish this through improving his mental game.
“I tried to stay calm during matches and not let my mistakes affect my play,” he said. “I also practice often to improve my skills that I think I should work on so that I’m always prepared to play well in my matches, and I think that helped me and my partner win our matches.”
The other half of the Lancers’ scoring came from the team’s singles players. No.1-seeded senior Derrick Sun only won one of his matchups, while No. 2 sophomore Dominador Tenazas and No. 3 player Kyle Kang each won two of their games.
“I mean, I was without a doubt disappointed in my gameplay today because I know I could’ve done better in many ways,” Sun said. “I’m glad my fellow singles players, who are much younger than I, were there to help us pull through and win the singles match.”
As the team approaches its CIF playoffs next week, Yoon said he plans to continue honing his skills under Ghareebo’s guidance to ensure he and his teammates maintain their winning streak.
“I want to practice with people who are more experienced than me so that I can be better prepared for CIF,” he said. “And through the league finals [this week], I would like to improve against good teams and ready myself for CIF and keep on learning so that our team could do better overall and for my future years here.”
The head coach said he is confident that his players can advance during CIF playoffs.
“At this point of the year, you just know,” Ghareebo said. “We’ve improved so much already, and now it’s just making things a bit more crisp, and hopefully it’s enough to make a deep run in CIF and see where we end up.”
