Serra’s boys varsity tennis team, dressed in blue and white, provided a contrast to Aragon’s team, which was fitted with black and red attire, during the two teams’ sole matchup of the season on Feb. 26. Underneath the Thursday afternoon sun and gentle breeze, the two teams faced off outside the South wing as the Dons played host the Padres in their eventual 7-0 win.
In previous matchups, the Padres have always posed a threat to the Dons, even during their non-league contests. Yet, after inviting a new head coach this season, graduating their top three players, and waiting on a handful of players with winter sport commitments, the team’s singles game was heavily debilitated such that when news came that the team would be without its two top singles players, the matchup for the Dons became significantly easier.
The No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 singles, junior Landers Ngierchemat, junior Jonathan Liu, and freshman David Wu, respectively, quickly ended their matches without any one of them losing more than four games to their opponents in a single set. Aragon No. 1 senior Matt Fowler’s opponent, senior Ryan Cao of Serra, was able to take the first set to 6-4 before losing in the second, 6-3.
Meanwhile, after the other doubles teams won their matches, No. 2 doubles, juniors Sameer Jain and Tony Wang, went 7-5 in the second following a 6-1 first set. “In the second set, they made a comeback at a transition point. Their serving was more on point. Their ground strokes were more solid. They were making their volleys,” says Wang. “But we just re-evaluated our strategy and we decided to just slow the game down and try and extend the rallies. Just lengthening the game threw them off and that worked out for us.”
After their win against Serra, the Dons will look forward to the upcoming season with their strong group of players who are capable of competing in both singles and doubles. Having had his team qualify for the Central Coast Section (CCS) Tournament each of the past three years, head coach Dave Owdom believes his team’s approach this year will remain the same as in years past—to try to win the league and qualify for CCS.
“We would love to win the league. We play in a very tough league, and it will be a challenge. Menlo-Atherton is the favorite, but we have a lot of depth this year on our team. I am really blessed to have such a deep team. With CCS, we face a lot of ranked teams with highly ranked players, and we have been fortunate to have won matches each of the past two years in CCS, and it’s really good competition,” says Owdom.
The team will be led by No. 1 singles senior Matthew Fowler this season. As team captain, Fowler strives to lead his team both on and off the court as he looks to finish his high school career with a successful run in the playoffs. “I lead practices on the weekends and at lunch as well. [Our] goal is to at least go to the semifinals this season,” he says.
Typical to every sport, it is imperative for teams to find the right lineups to use and figure out which positions their players play the best in.
“We need to get our right doubles mixes, and we have a couple players that have been playing since elementary school together. We are also working more on singles and just trying to get the right combination,” says Owdom. “For example, Landers Ngierchemat is really stepping up and we are going to have him begin to play in singles this year. ”
With a deep team full of young, hungry players, Owdom intends to continue improving the team’s fundamentals and mindset from past seasons while also emphasizing their play at the net. “We’ve focused more on serving and volleying, and we have really good net players.”
The Dons are poised for another automatic bid into CCS and look to make it four years in a row in competing in the CCS competition—one of the longest active streaks of any Aragon sport.
