The Paly boys’ tennis team is demonstrating dedication and confidence in becoming one of the elite teams of the CCS, with a 6-1 victory over Lynbrook High School on Tuesday and momentum from an incredible opening week of play.
The Paly season (2-0 league, 6-1 overall) kicked off with a big 4-3 victory over cross-town rival Gunn High School last Wednesday in a match that lasted afternoons due to darkness the first day. The team was down 2-3 at the end of Tuesday, with two remaining matches to complete the following day. On Wednesday, junior doubles team Alan Chen and Cory McCroskey and No. 4 singles player junior Dan Schwartz each successfully battled out and won their matches, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) and 6-4, 6-7(11), 6-3 respectively.
Despite gaining momentum after their Gunn victory, the Vikings’ short recovery time between matches hindered them from performing their best in the Friday to Saturday California High School Boys Classic Tournament in Fresno according to coach Andy Harader.
Paly junior Samuel Wong was unable to play the No. 3 spot against Gunn in the tournament finals, and senior Kushal Tantry was feeling ill. Both players’ health and ability to play at their full potential was critical in defeating Gunn the first time, Harader said.
Nevertheless, the team placed second among a total of 96 other California high school teams that competed, including Jesuit High School and Davis High School. The best that the Paly Vikings had ever done before was win fourth place; last year, they received 9th place.
After a few days of recovery over the weekend, the boys returned and easily overwhelmed their opponents from Lynbrook with long rallies in the singles matches and good communication in the doubles matches.
“Even though everyone’s sick, they are all playing pretty much to their full potential,” junior John Mitchell said. “We have a couple people that are injured, but we are still playing pretty well as a team.”
And indeed, the boys were able to perform exceptionally well.
At No. 1 singles, co-captain Tantry struggled to finish off rallies against Lynbrook junior Eugene Muchynski, ultimately losing 2-6, 3-6. With an early lead in the first set, Muchynski was moving around the court well, which allowed him to hit many winners. Tantry won several volleys at the net, but he was pushed too far back in many rallies to be effective.
“I just tried to play aggressive[ly] because he [Tantry] is a counter-puncher,” Muchynski said after the match.
Striking the ball with impressive topspin at No. 2 singles, undefeated Paly freshman Baramee Wongbanchai crushed Lynbrook junior Davis Huang, 6-1, 6-0. Wongbanchai began the match with a combination of forehands down the line and slice backhands, slowly pressuring Huang to make errors. Wongbanchai and Huang exchanged rallies of up to 20 or 30 shots several times. But in the end, Wongbanchai’s slow approaches to the net allowed him to finish off points, Wongbanchai said.
“He [Huang] is consistent,” Wongbanchai said. “But my groundstrokes and volleys were pretty good.”
At No. 3 singles, Wong defeated Lynbrook junior Stephen Li, 6-3, 6-0. Wong used his knowledge of Li’s playing style and tactics from previous meetings to his advantage, forcing errors and frustration from his opponent.
“I kept my head in the game,” Wong said. “I just went for my shots and made them in.”
In a patient but steady match, junior Dan Schwartz prolonged his undefeated 6-0 record this season by outlasting Lynbrook senior Vyas Ramasubramani, 6-1, 6-2. Taking advantage of Ramasubramani’s inconsistent serves, Schwartz made aggressive returns and was able to convert many service games with ease. Schwartz’s ability to keep the ball in play and make few errors was impressive to the Lynbrook senior.
“He [Schwartz] did not miss [any shots] at all,” Ramasubramani said. “Palo Alto is definitely the best school we’ve played so far, by a large margin.”
Paly senior co-captain David Plotkin and Mitchell needed less than an hour to oust Lynbrook sophomores David Cappello and Rohan Jonnalagadda, 6-1, 6-0. Cappello and Jonnalagadda struggled on serve throughout the entire match, double-faulting often. Plotkin and Mitchell’s communication and aggressive setups for rallies prevented the two Lynbrook underclassmen to direct play.
“I served pretty well,” Mitchell said, “and [when] I serve well, Plotkin would volley well at the net.”
Sophomore doubles Chase Cooper and Drew Pearson had a little more difficulty finishing off their match than most of their teammates at the No. 2 spot, but were able to capture a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 win. Cooper and Pearson had a slow start in the match with many unforced errors under the pressure of Lynbrook seniors Masashi Omori and Edison Tung. However, Cooper and Pearson focused on making their opponents move, seeing that rotation was not a strength of Omori and Tung.
In the longest match of the day, juniors Chen and McCroskey effectively retook possession of the match against Lynbrook freshmen Ryan Liu and Takumi Takahashi after dropping the first set. Liu and Takahashi began the match aggressively, defending and attacking at the net well. With a break of Chen’s serve at 3-2, the two Lynbrook underclassmen quickly disposed of the set. Starting in the second set, Chen and McCroskey were the attackers, setting up many volleys that allowed McCroskey to finish points off at the net. The two juniors’ experience with playing together gave them the edge to seal the victory in the third set tiebreaker. The final score was 3-6, 6-4, 10-4.
“They [Liu and Takahashi] were really consistent and had some really nice volleys,” Chen said. “The reason why we [McCroskey and I] were losing [in the first set] was that we were going for too much too early. After the first set, I think we realized that we had to tighten up: we couldn’t hit it as hard as we wanted to, and we had to hit cleaner [shots] and come to the net more.”
Though the boys expect challenging and exciting matches against teams from Bellarmine, Menlo School, and Saratoga, another chance at defeating Gunn in mid-April is high on the list of matches to look forward to.
The Vikings demolished Aptos High School 6-1 on Wednesday, and will face Mountain View at home in their third league contest on today, March 6.
Editor’s note: Parts of this story were changed due to grammatical errors.