As promised in earlier articles, the end of our season was going to be tough.  Though today’s match was less about winning or losing and more about celebrating our seniors, it would have been nice to end our regular season with a victory.  We certainly had our chances.  With today’s loss, we end our regular season with a 10-8 record.  As is tradition, all seniors were placed into the lineup and two finished their regular season high school careers with a victory.  We very much missed our #2 player and senior Saaj Shah.  Instead of recapping every match, I’m choosing to focus on the highlights and the seniors.

Because I was warned that some of the Bishop O’Dowd doubles players were arriving late, we did not start the match with all seniors.  We instead put out all six singles matches first.  Senior #1 Sze Ting Chen finished quickly with a straightforward 6-3, 6-1 victory and simply was too much for Sachelari.  Sze Ting takes his winning streak into the DAL tournament as the #1 seed.  Younger brother #2 Sze You lost the first set 4-6 but then reduced his unforced errors, improved his consistency and took control of the match, winning the second set 6-1 and the super tiebreaker 10-7.  Yoyo is really playing well and looks ready for the post season. 

Seniors Kyle Shin and Blake Marshall played #1 dubs and took the first set 7-5.  This match was high level and full of great rallies and put ways.  Unfortunately, Tanaka/Balaji came back and won the second set 6-3.  The super was extremely tight but at 8-8, the O’Dowd team closed out the last two points.  Seniors Todi and Zheng played #2 doubles but the unforced error count was just a little too high resulting in a straight set loss. 

Then there’s the Sea of Cortez and Farmer Bill.  Yes, the dynamic duo teamed up again as senior Billy O’Brien asked to play his final league match with his favorite doubles partner, Grant Cortez – and man, did they put on a show!  They lost the first set 2-6, but every game seemed to be going to deuce and if they could just stay in rallies a little longer and keep the ball away from the net player, good things could happen.  Billy and Grant played a courageous second set winning the long points and playing unbelievable defense.  It earned them a 6-4 win and a deciding super tiebreaker.  They continued their great play and took a 9-5 lead.  Hats off to Enzo and Ethan who fought off four match points to tie it up 9-9.  Then the points went longer with one rally I’m sure going over 40 shots.  But our boys again demonstrated nerves of steel.  In the end, the Sea and the Farmer took it 13-11.  Amazing match guys!  Well-deserved win.

I got so wrapped up with the tennis that I only snapped one picture the entire match.  My bad.  We always get along great with the Bishop O’Dowd players and today was just another example.  We said goodbye and good match quickly as our senior night immediately followed.  My apologies to our parents and seniors as I did prepare for our senior send off, but I felt so rushed as our match ran late and the DAL tournament meeting was already underway at Ygnacio Valley High.  I’ll make up for it at the banquet.

To this year’s seniors Sze Ting Chen, Blake Marshall, Billy O’Brien, Saaj Shah, Kyle Shin, Vedant Todi and Andrew Zheng – you guys will be missed and I wish you all the success and happiness you deserve as you go off to college and then the real world.  You all enhanced my coaching experience at Acalanes and I’ll never forget you guys.  I hope you stay in touch.

For the DAL singles/doubles tournament tomorrow, Acalanes has only one singles entrant this year, Sze Ting Chen, who was seeded first.  In the doubles, we have four teams: #4 seeded Sze You Chen/Hoeberechts, Cameron Fisher/Alex King, Rhett Brewer/James Ammerman and Chris Gorham/Nolan Roberts.  First matches kick off at 11:15AM at Northgate.  Good luck tomorrow guys.  My next update will be Thursday after the tournament ends.   Thanks again to all of our parents who supported us today.  Also, thanks to everyone who stayed to enjoy dinner as we celebrated the seniors after.  Go Dons.  Coach Rick

Results: Bishop O’Dowd defeated Acalanes 6-3

Singles

#1 Sze Ting Chen (A) defeated Marcello Sachelari (B) 6-3, 6-1

#2 Sze You Chen (A) defeated Mateen LeClair (B) 4-6, 6-1, 10-7

Noah Amanuel (B) defeated #3 Bora Hoeberechts (A) 6-2, 6-4

Dhilan Belur (B) defeated #4 Sammy Taylor (A) 6-3, 6-1

Suri Sokol (B) defeated #5 Cameron Fisher (A) 6-3, 6-4

Nico Leduc (B) defeated #6 Chris Gorham (A) 6-1, 6-1

Doubles

Lucas Tanaka/Ishaan Balaji (B) defeated #1 Kyle Shin/Blake Marshall (A) 5-7, 6-3, 10-8

Jack Gonzalez/James Hollins (B) defeated #2 Vedant Todi/Kyle Shin (A) 6-1, 6-2

#3 Grant Cortez/Billy O’Brien (A) defeated Enzo Deglen-Giulio/Ethan Orfuss (B) 2-6, 6-4, 13-11