Well, the high of beating Campo on Tuesday only lasted a couple of days as two things were confirmed Thursday. First, Miramonte looks like the top team in our league both on paper and in person. And two, we are not the same team without two of our top singles starters; #1 Sze Ting Chen and #6 Sammy Taylor. We missed them both today. The boys gave their best effort – several of them playing in positions higher than their norms. Fortunately, Sze Ting’s foot x-rays came back negative, so we hope to see him back in action before we play our league foes the second time around.
Because several of the scores were very one-sided, I’m going to pass on trying to find ways to go line by line putting positive spins on thumpings. What’s the saying? You can put a dress on a pig but it’s still a pig and it just makes him mad. This is one of those days when you say to your opponent – you were the better team today. The boys moved on pretty quickly as several starters jumped back on the courts to play exhibition matches as Miramonte brought several extra players. The takeaway is that we know what we’re up against now when we play Miramonte at home. The coaches will do their best to prepare the team for round two.
On the positive side, senior and team co-captain Kyle Shin put up a good battle playing way up at #4 singles. Though he lost the first set 6-0, he climbed back into the match taking the second set 6-4. He had an 8-7 advantage in the deciding super tiebreaker before Chen ran off with the last three points and the match. Overall, it was still an impressive performance by Kyle. Sophomore Grant Cortez also made a comeback attempt after breaking his strings in the first set. With a borrowed racket, he took Westin to a 7-5 second set but fell just short. Grant stepped up from JV this year and is working his tennis game back into form after playing soccer in the winter. And thank you to the Todi’s for a pizza buffet for the boys. This team is always well fed by our wonderful family supporters.
The boys get a few days off to recharge their batteries. Next week, we have two home matches. Tuesday is a league match against Northgate, and Thursday is an interleague match against Benicia. Thank you again to our many parents who always come out to cheer on the team. We’ll get ‘em next time! Go Dons! Coach Rick
Results: Miramonte defeated Acalanes 9-0
Singles
Raunav Agarwil (M) defeated #1 Saaj Shah (A) 6-0, 6-0
Michael Conway (M) defeated #2 Sze You Chen (A) 6-2, 6-1
Blake Park (M) defeated #3 Bora Hoeberechts (A) 6-0, 6-0
Alexander Chen (M) defeated #4 Kyle Shin (A) 6-0, 4-6, 10-8
Calvin Mordy (M) defeated #5 Chris Gorham (A) 6-1, 6-2
Hayes Westin (M) defeated #6 Grant Cortez (A) 6-1, 7-5
Doubles
Charles Richtenburg/Jonny Antman (M) defeated #1 Blake Marshall/Cameron Fisher (A) 7-6 (1), 6-1
Jack Whitaker/Austin Redmond (M) defeated #2 Rhett Brewer/James Ammerman (A) 6-3, 6-1
Cole Krimmel/Henry Silveira (M) defeated #3 Nolan Roberts/Vedant Todi (A) 6-3, 6-2
