Today was an extremely tough day for the team. After suffering our worse loss of the season, we were then given the tragic news about the passing of an Acalanes classmate, Amin Noroozi. Though I did not personally know Amin, fellow school staff members have told me only amazing stories about him as not only a student, friend and citizen but as a member of the football, wrestling and track team. What I’ve learned about Acalanes is that it pulls together as one community and family. I know it will now to help his surviving family, friends and classmates work through this really difficult time.
Making excuses for why we lost today would discount the efforts put forth by the Dons players who competed and tried their hardest to win. It would also show poor sportsmanship as it diminishes the credibility of the win for our opponent. For those reasons and others, I’m going to simply congratulate Campolindo on a well-deserved win. Acalanes is a tough out this year. They knew it and came fully staffed and ready, and they were the better team today. As mature competitors, we learn from our wins and losses and we have things to work on to prepare for Miramonte on Tuesday. We focus forward.
Our one win today came from #1 Sze Ting Chen who has not been in the line up since March 18 when we played Northgate. Chen won in straight sets and was never in any trouble. Kuimars broke the strings on two rackets in the first set before finishing out the match with a third racket. Though it could have been worn strings, Chen said it was because of how hard he was hitting the ball. Judges?
Two of our closest losses came in the second flight of matches. #1 doubles team Eagens/ Shah won the first set 6-4. The tennis was high quality stuff with a lot of points that were fun to watch. It looked like this could be a straight set victory, but Mooradian/Nahkle settled into the match and pulled out the second set in a tiebreaker. They then went on to win the decider 10-4. #2 Rocco/Marshall struggled at the start of the match but righted the ship and split sets. This is a match that could have gone either way. The breaker was back and forth until Okulicz/Ramani squeaked out an 11-9 win.
Our wonderful parents and family supporters were out in big numbers today. We also had a visit from Chris Reeder, Ace’s father and a huge fan of the Acalanes tennis program. Ace is doing extremely well at TCU and is still playing tennis – what every tennis coach wants to hear. I wish we could have pulled the win out for you today, but we now move into the last week of the regular season. Yes – it’s almost over already. Go Dons! Coach Rick
Results – Campolindo defeated Acalanes 8-1
Singles
#1 Sze Ting Chen (A) defeated Kiumars Koopah (C) 6-3, 6-3
Daniel Shpolanski (C) defeated #2 Nick Owens (A) 6-3, 6-1
Rex Pastore (C) defeated #3 Sammy Foster (A) 7-6 (4), 6-2
Edgar Alford (C) defeated #4 Kaya Hoeberechts (A) 6-0, 6-3
Brady Adams (C) defeated #5 Kyle Shin (A) 6-1, 6-2
James Hughes (C) defeated #6 Andrew Zheng (A) 6-1, 6-4
Doubles
Jack Mooradian/Peter Nahkle (C) defeated #1 Peyton Eagens/Saaj Shah (A) 4-6, 7-6 (7), 10-4
Nate Okulicz/Lex Ramani (C) defeated #2 Dylan Rocca/Blake Marshall (A) 6-2, 2-6, 11-9
Oliver Fetzko/Cade Williamson (C) defeated #3 Danny Goldwyn/Carsten Ristow (A) 6-2, 6-4
