Paly’s varsity boys’ tennis team is anticipating victory at the Cal Classic tournament in Fresno this weekend after notching its third consecutive 7-0 win, this time over Serra High School, on Wednesday.
Paly (3-0) crushed Serra (4-1) and is confident it can do well in the tournament this weekend. The tournament will allow Paly to compete with schools from all over northern California in bracket-style elimination play.
Head coach Andy Harader has high hopes for this weekend.
“It’s all confidence-building and were going to go down to Fresno on a real positive note,” Harader said. “We’re the No. 1 seed out of 104 teams, so it’s nice to be there. But you also got to defend it.”
In Wednesday’s match, No. 1 singles senior Sam Wong had a little trouble dispatching his opponent, Serra senior Ray Worley, in three sets, 7-6, 2-6, 10-5. After 90 minutes of long rallies and volleys, Wong emerged the victor. Despite having dropped the second set and gone to two tiebreakers, Wong was pleased with the result.
“I thought it was a fun match,” Wong said. “It was a warm-up for the Fresno tournament. Ray [Worley] comes out with shots out of nowhere, and he has a good serve.”
Worley spoke fondly of his competitive relationship with Wong.
“Sam and I, we go way back,” Worley said. “He’s a fighter; he gets every ball back.”
At No. 2, 3, and 4 singles, senior Dan Schwartz, freshman Nicky Hu, and senior Cory Mc Croskey, respectively, all had no trouble with their opponents, each sweeping Serra players Andrew Madlambayan, Lucas Zacharias, and Eric Gordon, respectively, 6-0, 6-0.
At No. 1 doubles, juniors Drew Pearson and Peter Tseng were the first off the doubles court, quickly disposing of their opponents, Sumeet Dogra and Sam Crew, 6-1, 6-0.
Senior Alan Chen and Chase Cooper at No. 3 doubles were next off the court, defeating Serra players Corey Rostad and Vasanth Mohan, 6-0, 6-1.
Despite frustration at having lost a game, Cooper felt the match went well.
“It went very well; they [Rostad and Vasanth] were a very challenging team to beat,” Cooper said. “I threw a pretty big temper tantrum, that was a low point in that match, but besides that it was pretty routine.”
Juniors Grant Audet and Alex Freeman at No. 2 doubles were last off the doubles courts.
Freeman and Audet struggled to find a rhythm, but once they got in phase, they were able to defeat Serra players John Schrup and Spencer Stahl 6-1, 6-2.
Freeman was satisfied with his match and high expectations for Fresno.
“It’s still the beginning of the season, but the team chemistry is built up already,” Freeman said. “So were hoping to have a success in Fresno being the No. 1 team.”