By Brandon Nguyen
The Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) boys’ varsity tennis fell short against Laguna Beach on Thursday, Apr. 6, with FVHS winning seven matches and Laguna Beach winning 11 (7-11).
The weather was chilly with a modest overcast but with very little wind. However, many key players, such as senior captains Alan Ton and David Hoang, were missing due to scheduling conflicts and injuries. This resulted in many junior varsity (JV) players stepping in and filling in spots for the missing varsity players. All the singles were substitutes from the JV team.
Sophomore Raymond Tran stepped in for Ton’s spot as Singles no.1, playing with a lot of energy and speed. Despite Tran’s energetic playing style, he came up short and lost all his matches.
Singles No. 2 sophomore Anthony Tadrus played with a lot of powerful swings and attention to detail. Tadrus had strong footwork and was able to move confidently toward where the ball was moving, but still lost all his matches. This playing style continued with singles no. 3, sophomore Nader Moussa pushing his hardest to hit the ball on opposite sides of where his opponent was in an attempt to tire his opponent out. However, Moussa was unable to shake his opponent off and also lost all his matches.
The FVHS boys’ teams came into the doubles match, reinvigorated with energy. Doubles no. 1 players, freshmen Eric Tran and Kai Takashima battled hard with long rallies and smash shots, winning all three of their matches. Throughout the matches, they had strong communication that kept them energized and able to predict the opponent’s swings effectively.
Doubles no. 2 were also able to replicate this energy moving quickly on their feet and in coordination. Sophomore Aanosh Patel and junior Dylan Nguyen won all three of their matches using many long swings to force their opponents to retreat to the back of the court. Nguyen stayed in the back having the more powerful hits, while Patel stayed closer to the front to catch Laguna Beach’s swings.
The final match was Doubles no. 3 by junior Jason Nguyen and senior Dylan Vo who were more silent throughout the match, but still in mutual coordination with one another. Both players had accurate serves and swings that sped across the court and many times caught Laguna Beach off guard. Doubles no. 3 won one of their games and lost two but still gave it their all.
