Junior Will Kershner playing doubles during one of the boys’ tennis team practices. 

– Courtesy of Delenn Chin

After losing its first match in the Central Coast Section championship last season, Palo Alto High School’s varsity boys’ tennis team is starting its new season with a win in its first match of the year.

According to coach Andy Harader, the Vikings won 6-1 against Aragon High School.  

Harader and members of the tennis team said that the tennis team’s goal is to make the CCS championship again.

“Our goal is to remain in the De Anza division for next year — not finish bottom of the league — and to make CCS,” senior captain Dar Shavit said.

Shavit also mentioned winning a state tournament in Fresno next weekend as a goal since the team has won two state tournaments in a row.

“I really hope we can win at least one round of CCS this year to improve on last year’s result  — loss to Serra [High School] in the first round,” Shavit added. “If we do well during the regular season, we should get a weaker opponent in the first round.”

Last year, the Vikings lost five players to graduation in Lucas Fodor, Andy Hammer, Chirag Krishna, Scott Monismith and junior Philipp de Fries.

“We lost a few key seniors that really helped us with doubles,” Shavit said.

Despite the loss of several players, returning sophomore Austin Leung said that the boys’ tennis team has gained some new recruits including sophomores George He and Jack Paladin, and juniors Thomas Kao and Will Kershner.

Moreover, with the addition of senior Nicky Hu, who is nationally-ranked for tennis and has committed to Harvard University, members of the team remain hopeful that he will be a valuable player.

“Our team expects to do pretty well,” Leung said. “We have nationally-ranked Nicky Hu playing for us, which will be a tremendous boost to our team.”

In addition to new players, Shavit added that the younger players and older players have improved. Besides his own improvement and the addition of Hu to the team, Shavit describes sophomores Leung and Blake Smith as “solid players” and sees them improving even further in the future.

“I think our team is just as good and maybe better than last year,” Shavit said.

Harader echoed Shavit’s sentiments.

“The team is looking great,” he said. “It’s going to be a fine year.”

According to Leung, the Vikings have home matches coming up against Gunn and Los Altos on Tuesday, Feb. 28, and Wednesday, Feb. 29, respectively.