The Dons looked polished today in a routine win over the Falcons.  Most of the matches were won easily and we are about as ready as we can be for the Campolindo showdown on Thursday. 

Our only loss on the card was the match against the two top players, #1 Nick Owens and Dibyam Dikhit.  Dikhit is a household name in the Diablo Athletic League (DAL).  He won the DAL singles championship last year and sports a 9.99 UTR rating.  Owens is currently 8.03, but you wouldn’t have guessed that today.  Owens put up a great fight against arguably the strongest player in the league.  He served well, struck his groundstrokes with pace, accuracy, and intent, and put up an amazing fight going for his winners and free swinging.  This was the definition of a good loss as he kept it close the whole way going down 6-3, 7-5.

The match between the two #2 seeds was also closely contested.  Freshman #2 Peyton Eagens outplayed Dariush Azarkhish 6-4, 6-4 in a battle that had many long points where both players were running each other from corner to corner.  Eagens played the long rallies extremely well with patience, consistency, and depth.  It was a well-earned win.

I also want to point the camera at our #3 doubles line and congratulate Danny Goldwyn and Vedant Todi for winning their first varsity match.  They looked a little tentative in the first set but still took it 7-5.  They won the second set 6-2, looking much more relaxed and going for their shots.

The team’s overall record is now 4-1 and we’ll test that Thursday against Campolindo (3:30 at home) and Tuesday against Miramonte (3:30 away).  There is no rain in the forecast, and we invite our family members to come root us on.  Thank you again to those who came today.  Go Dons!  Coach Rick