RECAP: TENNIS

Varsity Tennis

By Coach Hall

This year’s boys’ varsity team finished strong, surpassing its fifth seed in the NCISAA state tournament with an upset over Cannon in the quarterfinals to reach the state semifinals. Challenges were everywhere this season, including home/aways with several extremely strong teams in our own conference, in the East, and the early season loss of senior and Hampden-Sydney commit Thomas Davis to injury. It was next-manup with Andrew Chen, Emilio Llerenas, Hayden Willett, and freshman Luca Bravo leading the way. Senior Charles De Mey and sophomore Chanakya Ayinala added a spark once the team was back at full strength for the playoffs. This team showed grit and perseverance and their efforts paid off.

Junior Varsity Tennis

By Coach Drury

The JV boys’ tennis team achieved a very good record of 10-1. Junior co-captains Nathan Butler (line 1, 8-3) and Solomon Boakye (line 5, 10-1) challenged their teammates to persevere and to stay in the moment (i.e. play the next point and forget about the past points). As a result, the team outplayed and outscored every school that they faced. As a team, they won 68 of the sets played (69%). The singles lines were rounded out by Andrew McDonald (line 2, 9-2), Rossi Bellavia (line 3, 5-3), Nishanth Gaddam (line 4, 4-5), and Trevor Hoffman (line 6, 5-5). Contributing back-up players were Landon Broadwell, Syan Gulati, Clayton Hahn, Riley Phelps, and Raaj Thakur. Congratulations to all on a great season.

Middle School Tennis

By Coach Imwalle

This season will be remembered as a success for a variety of reasons. First, all thirteen players on our team gained experience from competing in both singles and doubles throughout the season. Everyone on our team contributed directly to winning a match this year! With only four returning players, most of our athletes had never competed with one another. This season was a success because our team’s culture promoted a transition from being classmates to becoming teammates and friends off the court. An added bonus, and a final reason that this season will be remembered as a success, is because we had an 11-1 record and we won the Conference Championship! Good luck to our eighth graders as they move on to the Upper School and I’m excited to see this talented seventh grade group compete again next year!