When the season started, the varsity coaching staff was jazzed as we had so much young talent coming onto the team.  As the season approaches its final match, the excitement is still there; however, so is the realization of the inexperience factor.  Some of our younger players are still adapting to crowds watching, navigating through extremely tight matches, managing nerves and pressure, and applying how they practice to how they compete in matches.  What encourages me is their enthusiasm and motivation to work hard during practices.  We have more work to do and we all know it.

Today’s match against Northgate was a hard pill to swallow.  For the second time this week, we were fully staffed yet came up a little short.  The NCS (North Coast Section) has 100 teams and Acalanes is currently ranked #19.  To add context, #1 is University, #3 is California High, #8 is Miramonte, #16 is Northgate and #18 is Campolindo.  If these rankings hold firm for another week, in the NCS Team Championship, Acalanes will be division one. 

I’m going to focus first on our three wins.  #1 Sze Ting Chen is clearly back in form and looked dominant, beating Raihan Lele 6-3, 6-0.  He moves to 11-1 on the season and this is his eight straight singles win without dropping a set while playing in the top spot.  Younger brother #3 Yoyo Chen also had a solid win over senior Bazulin.  Both boys were clubbing the ball back and forth and it was an entertaining match.  Yoyo only gave up five games in the end and played very well.  #3 Sammy Taylor provided the team its third win as he came from a set down to defeat senior Maks Rees.  Sammy won the second set 6-2 and gave up only one point in the super tiebreaker.  Sammy was striking the ball crisply and moved well on the court.  He also looked confident even when he was a set down.

The first time we played Northgate, #1 dubs Fisher/Marshall beat Choi/Golovin 6-3, 7-5.  Today, unfortunately, Choi/Golovin got revenge with almost the same score.  This was again a highly competitive match that could have gone either way.  Choi/Golovin took the first set 6-4 and was up 5-2.  Cameron and Blake then made a run tying the score at 5-5.  Hats off to Nicko and Vadim who won the last two games giving them the match.  The other very close match was #2 doubles.  #2 Brewer/Ammerman won the first set 6-4 and though the second set was close, I really thought Rhett and James would pull it out.  Unforced errors plagued the latter part of the second set sending the match into a third set super tiebreaker.  Musa and Ozan jumped in front but our boys came back to tie it 8-8.  Credit again goes to Northgate as Musa and Ozan outplayed us the last two points and took it 11-9.  Northgate 6, Acalanes 3.

While Acalanes was playing Northgate, Miramonte defeated Campolindo 8-1, so with a 5-1 record, Miramonte dethrones Campolindo to become this year’s league champs.  Northgate (3-2) will play Campolindo (2-3) on Monday as they were rained out this past Tuesday.  Acalanes at 1-5 placed fourth. 

As a reminder, we play a non-league match against Bishop O’Dowd at 3:30PM Tuesday.  All seniors will play in that match and then we will honor our seniors after with a small party.  Hope to see our team’s families there.  Wednesday, we will kick off the DAL singles and doubles tournament.  Day one starts at 11:15AM at Northgate.  We will play the first three rounds getting us through the quarterfinals.  Day two, Thursday, starts at 2PM at Acalanes.  First round is the semifinals of both singles and doubles.  Immediately following will be the finals.  The winners have an automatic entry into the NCS singles/doubles championships May 8 and 9. That tournament is where the singles and doubles roads end for the season.  The winners are the North Coast Champions.  The following week, the team event kicks off.  More to come on that as the date gets closer. 

Thank you to our family members who came out to Northgate today.  We really wanted to win this one for you!!  Go Dons.  Coach Rick

Results: Northgate defeated Acalanes 6-3

Singles

#1 Sze Ting Chen (A) defeated Raihan Lele (N) 6-3, 6-0

Elias Mojadidi (N) defeated #2 Saaj Shah (A) 6-2, 6-1

#3 Sze You Chen (A) defeated Dimitri Bazulin (N) 6-3, 6-2

Nick Timokhin (N) defeated #4 Bora Hoeberechts (A) 6-0, 4-0 retired

Nico Keep (N) defeated #4 Kyle Shin (A) 6-2, 6-2

#6 Sammy Taylor (A) defeated Maks Rees (N) 3-6, 6-2, 10-1

 

Doubles

Nicko Choi/Vadim Golovin (N) defeated #1 Cameron Fisher/Blake Marshall (A) 6-4, 7-5

Musa Mojadidi/Ozan Kavlak (N) defeated #2 Rhett Brewer/James Ammerman (A) 4-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9

Quinn Walsh/Cayden Sadur (N) defeated #3 Vedant Todi/Nolan Roberts (A) 6-4, 6-1