The varsity boys’ team put up a valiant effort versus Northgate but unfortunately came up a little short. We had a little bit of everything out there yesterday. There were some great highlights. Ace played #6 and had a tight win over a fellow football player. They were evenly matched, but Ace pulled off the right shots during the critical points and came away with the win. #1 and #2 doubles teams consisting of Tyler H, Liam, Riley, and Aaron looked sharp in straight-set victories as well.
Then we had two nailbiters. Nick Owens in the #2 spot put on a great display of shot-making, persistence, and intelligence to climb his way back from a one-set deficit to take his opponent into a third-set tiebreaker. Down 7-9 (double-match point), he never gave in and took a 10-9 lead. In the end, his opponent closed the match 12-10, but Nick gets an A+ for determination and execution on the court. #3 doubles Matt and Juzer’s match also went down to a third-set tiebreaker, and though they lost 10-8, they never stopped fighting.
Our toughest loss though was in the #1 singles spot. Tyler T was playing extremely well and leading in the match. He then had to withdraw mid-match due to an injury. He will get a second chance at this when we play Northgate again.
Northgate played us well yesterday and will be a formidable team in the league. Acalanes knew we had our chances to win though. The home and away coaches, while watching, continuously commented to each other on how very close each of the matches were and that this could go either way. Acalanes has talent and depth, and this match gave us a very good read on how competitive we will be in our league and what we have to improve on to win when we play Northgate again.
Thanks to all the families who showed up to support the team. We have two more home matches next week: College Park on March 15 and Las Lomas on March 17. We then go on the road for five straight matches. Go Dons!
SINGLES:
Marco Tse (N) defeated #1 Tyler Toni (A) 3-4 retired
Ioann Timokhin (N) defeated #2 Nick Owens (A) 6-4, 4-6, 12-10
Jonathan Lee (N) defeated #3 Luke Brightbill (A) 6-1, 6-3
Kian Khomjani (N) defeated #4 Zach Snyder (A) 6-4, 6-4
Romtin Pourzand (N) defeated #5 Tucker Brewer (A) 6-4,6-0
#6 Ace Reeder (A) defeated Ryan Bennett (N) 7-5, 6-4
DOUBLES:
#1 Tyler Holder/Liam McGlynn (A) defeated Trey Schultz/Jack Wirig (N) 6-1, 6-3
#2 Riley Bonner/Aaron Brown (A) defeated Nathan Qui/Colin Sheldon (N) 6-4, 6-3
Woosup Kim/JJ Mattingly (N) defeated #3 Matthew Muren/Juzer Shipchandler (A) 6-4, 4-6, 10-8