The JV Boys tennis team placed 2nd at the recent Freedom High School Invitational on Saturday, April 20th. The event was comprised of six schools and 7 8-man teams. Schools included Freedom, Bishop O’Dowd, Acalanes, San Ramon Valley, Granada, Heritage (who brought two teams). The tournament was a round robin format with each team playing four matches vs. other teams. The format was 2 singles and 3 doubles for each round. One 6-game pro set with no-ad scoring.
Round 1: Acalanes vs. San Ramon Valley Win: 3-2
Chase Belhumeur faced a tough opponent in Vasu Goel and dropped his set 6-7 (2-7).
Dhruv Mahadevan prevailed over Lucas Entwisle, 6-4.
Cole Trimble-Jared Merrill won handily over Nathan Johnson-Marcus Mendez, 6-2.
Eddie Leung-Connor Mc Andrew played to a 6-6 tie vs. the Namimatsu brothers, but came up short 6-7 in a close tiebreaker (5-7).
Gabi Solera Serrano-Tate Frase won 6-4 vs. Jared Smith-Leon Hao.
Round 2: Acalanes vs. Heritage 1: Win: 4-1
Chase Belhumeur bounced back vs. Ronan Pham to win in another close match, 7-6 (7-4).
Dhruv Mahadevan quickly dispatched Andrew Sherman, 6-1.
Cole Trimble-Jared Merrill vs. Jayden Ong-Andrew Loo, 6-3.
Bryce Belhumeur-Gabi Solera Serrano faced Alex Reynolds-Ash Kandoroodian, but lost 4-6.
Eddie Leung-Connor McAndrew cruised to victory over Jason Liu-Alex Francis, 6-0.
Round 3: Acalanes vs. Heritage 2: Win: 4-1
Chase Belhumeur faced a tough opponent in Anirvan Madhan, going down 3-6.
Dhruv Mahadevan won easily over Hari Seemakurthy. 6-1.
Cole Trimble-Jared Merrill vs. Adithya Rajesh-Gavin Vera won handily again, 6-0.
Eddie Leung-Connor McAndrew vs. Ivan Bogdanov-Anthony Guzman, 6-2.
Tate Frase-Christian Ensign won easily over Cole Chin-Timothy Susanto. 6-1.
Round 4: Acalanes vs. Granada: Win 3-2
Dhruv Mahadevan had no problem with Jaiden Serrano, 6-0.
Gabi Solera Serrano filled in for Chase, giving him a breather, but lost 3-6.
Despite jumping out to 5-0 lead, Jared Merrill-Bryce Belhumeur vs. Caden Okomoto-Boden Keller dropped a tough one, 6-7 (6-8).
Eddie Leung-Connor McAndrew vs. Itai Ratvkoff-Nihilesh Patel held on for a 6-4 win.
Tate Frase-Christian Ensign closed out Round 4 over Adithya Singampalli-Parem Patel, 6-2.
Semifinals: Acalanes vs. Heritage 1 Win 5-0
Our undefeated record in the first 4 Rounds placed us as the Top Seed going into the Semifinal Round, where we met Heritage 1 again in the semis, where we achieved an impressive 5-0 sweep.
Chase Belhumeur faced Ronan Pham again and won 6-3.
Dhruv Mahadevan vs. Jayden Ong won 6-4.
Jared Merrill-Gabi Solera Serrano cruised to a win over Andrew Sherman-Andrew Loo, 6-0.
Eddie Leung-Connor McAndrew vs. Ash Kandoroodian-Alex Reynolds, winning in a tiebreaker, 7-6.
Tate Frase-Christian Ensign vs. Jason Liu-Alex Frances closed out the semis, 6-2.
Finals: Acalanes vs. San Ramon Valley Lost: 2-3
Both Chase and Dhruv faced their same opponents from Round 1, Vasu Goel and Lucas Entwisle. Except this time, we came up short in both lines, 4-6, 4-6.
Jared Miller-Bryce Belhumeur vs. Marcus Mendoza-James Namimatsu held on in a tough match, 7-5.
Eddie Leung-Connor McAndrew (playing in their 3rd tiebreaker of the day) vs. Nathan Johnson-Chance Namimatsu, lost in a heartbreaker, 6-7 (5-7).
Tate Frase-Christian vs. Leon Hao-Andrew Lei had an easy time of it, winning 6-1 (which secure their perfect 5-0 for the day in all the matches they played).
All in all, an exceptionally strong showing from our JV Boys. The players fought hard, kept their composure, and played extremely well throughout the entire day–a very long day, indeed (10 hours in total), and very warm. Each player contributed to our success and the coaching staff is especially proud of them all. Finally…Thanks to the parents who supported the team with rides to/from, provisions and beverages and for their unflagging enthusiasm cheering on the boys. Well done. We had a blast!
Coach Gary and Lee Ann
Go Dons!
