By Anneliese Duong
In the Barons’ second match against Marina High School (MHS), they remained triumphant with a final score of 13-5.
The doubles lineup swept every set with ease. Doubles No. 1 senior co-captain Kai Rodriguez and senior Nathan Dang—as well as doubles No. 2 junior Ethan Votran and junior Jared Nguyen—struck their opponents with scores of 6-0, 6-2 and 6-0. Likewise, doubles No. 3 senior Albert Ly and junior Ninh Nguyen ended their match on a good note with scores of 6-0, 6-3 and 6-2.
Throughout season, many of the players learned strategies and incentives to keep their spirits up. Votran and Jared Nguyen shone through with their synergy on the courts today.
“Staying positive is very important for me and my teammate,” Votran said. “it’s definitely something we need to work on but today, it really showed and having a positive mindset kept us going strong.”
As MHS’s singles players are known to be tough, it was no easy feat for the Barons on the singles side. Singles No. 1 senior co-captain Benjamin Nguyen won two out of three sets: 5-7, 6-2 and 6-2. Despite fighting hard until the end, singles No. 2 freshman Colin Nguyen was unable to win his sets. As for singles No. 3 sophomore Alan Ton, he was successful with scores of 6-1 and 6-0 in the sets he played.
Ton first felt he wasn’t playing to the best of his abilities due to not warming up properly but it all worked out in the end.
“In [my] first match, I was rusty [because] I didn’t feel like playing this morning,” Ton said. “But after I won a few games, I was like, ‘oh wow I’m playing pretty well today’ so it was actually really good.”
Senior Giancarlo Figueroa subbed in for Ton in the last set but could not outlast MHS’s singles No. 1 player’s powerful shots.
As head coach Harshul Patel observed the boys in today’s match, he felt very satisfied with the competition, especially for the singles players.
“The singles matches are doing a lot better; the competition was much better,” Patel said. “[Marina] is one of the toughest competitors we have on the singles side, which is a blessing for us because it really gets us going for our league matches.”
As the boys progress closer to the start of their league matches, they will continue to tackle their weaknesses and enhance their strengths. Patel advises the boys to stay consistent while adapting as the matches proceed.
“We definitely want to improve as our goal is to not only win league, but also in CIF. Right now, we are the fourth-ranked team in Southern California, [which is] an achievement,” Patel said. “Every day we show up, we’re going to improve from here on.”
The boys’ varsity tennis team will be home to play against Newport Harbor High School on Wednesday, April 1.
