By Natalie Tran
This afternoon, the Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) varsity tennis team annihilated the Edison High School (EHS) Chargers in a stunning victory. With a final score of 14-4 for the girls’ varsity team and 18-0 for the boys’ varsity team, the game presented a wonderful kickoff to the pre-season.
While the FVHS tennis team had been adhering to all of the COVID-19 safety guidelines and protocols provided by the California Department of Public Health and the Orange County Healthcare Agency, today was the first time in which masks were not required while players were active on the court.
Other safety measures including social distancing and limiting the number of spectators on the court are still set in place. But there’s an upside. Since tennis is purely a non-contact outdoor sport, players have been able to hold more practices and games compared to other sports.
The Baron players went into today’s game with momentum as they were filled with determination for redemption after having lost to EHS 5-13 in the previous year. The boys and girls both played three singles matches and three doubles matches. The boys’ team won all games while the girls’ team lost four games.
“Coming into the game, I expected that we were going to lose,” sophomore Iris Chau said. “I thought that we were going to get to get yet another stern 40-minute lecture from the coach on how we were supposed to be ‘contenders instead of pretenders.’”
For the girls’ varsity team, singles No. 1 junior Nghi Trinh displayed her stellar skills as she won all three of her sets with scores of 6-1, 6-2 and 6-0. Doubles No. 1 senior captain Kaylee Tran and junior Emily Tran also won all three of their sets as well, a perfect demonstration of the team’s success in today’s game.
“I was hoping for the team to do better and to at least improve and not repeat some of the same previous losses. My wish came into fruition after seeing today’s scores so I was very glad,” Kaylee Tran said. “I feel pretty good about future games… I think we’ve seen that we can play our best from today and I see no reason for us not to play even better with our training.”
As for the boys’ tennis team, it was no doubt that all the players put in their best effort. With a perfect total score of 18-0, it’s clear that the team put up an outstanding performance against their rival school today.
Notable players included Doubles No. 2 juniors Ethan Votran and Jared Nguyen, who displayed an impressive amount of chemistry as they both worked very well together to defeat their opponents with scores of 6-1, 6-1 and 6-0 in their sets.
Single No. 2 senior Devan Pathak also demonstrated his talents today winning his first-ever varsity match in his high school career, a very impressive achievement. Overall, all of the boys’ varsity team flourished in today’s game, and the season is off to a terrific start.
“Going in, we expected to do really well and we did,” senior co-captain Benjamin Nguyen said. “I think our team is super solid this year since we have a lot of good players, good underclassmen [who] are getting a lot more mature. I think we could go really far into the league and maybe even CIF if it’s possible.”
Head coach Harshul Patel expressed his satisfaction with the varsity team’s performance and has his eyes set on maintaining this success in the future.
“We are a very strong team—we’re literally loaded. And we had a strong team last year but we continued to work hard to get ready for this season and renew,” Patel said. “We are so very excited and I believe that we’re going to finish very strong and I’m very optimistic about it.”
