Mia Thurrell
On Feb. 27, Aragon boys tennis (3-0 overall, 2-0 league) continued on with their strong start to the season in a 7-0 win against Carlmont (1-2 league). The team already had great confidence going into the game.
“Carlmont is one of the better [teams],” said No. 2 singles and junior Veraaz Khan. “But we’re still going to do good because our team is really good.”
Though the team had some changes in the lineup, with senior Justin Wong substituting for senior Keiya Wada at No. 1 doubles, the team swept Carlmont.
“They played very well as Justin last year played with Thomas and [once] beat a really good team [against Menlo-Atherton,]” said head coach Dave Owdom. “So I had some pretty good faith that they would do fine.”
The team started this season with an excellent start, defeating the neighbor Hillsdale 7-0 in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay division and is looking forward to becoming the defending champion of the league from last year.
“We have the talent to win the league, but you still got to do it,” Owdom said. “Everybody’s going to play you harder because they know you’re the defending champion, so you just got to be up for every match. You can’t take it easy.”
The game had already begun during the warm-up with both teams fiercely cheering up their teammates.
“Our team is very good all around; everyone is pretty fit,” said No. 2 doubles and junior Max Gan. “We know how to run. We’re pretty quick, and our mental strength is good because we support … and hype up each other. It’s a lot different from all those other quiet teams.”
The team quickly secured their first win with No. 3 doubles and senior Dylan Cheung and freshman Adam Beg in a 6-0, 6-4 match within the first hour.
Despite the fast-paced win, Beg looks forward to improving even more for the next game.
“My serves and my team’s consistency in shots [led to the easy win,]” Beg said. “[But] we could try to be a little more consistent [in talking] to each other.”
Later on, No. 3 singles and junior Darrin O’Brien won 6-1, 6-2, followed by No. 1 doubles and seniors Thomas Nie and Wong who showed a little struggle in the end, but ultimately won with ease 6-0, 6-3. Khan cruised through both sets by a score of 6-0, 6-1. With high expectations, No. 1 singles and senior Akbar Beg — who went to the second round of Central Coast Section Individual last year — did not have the best start, but slowly got his momentum back with a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
No. 2 doubles and senior Jack He and Gan had a long match, being neck-and-neck with Carlmont for the entire first set. However, in the end, they were able to bring the first set to a tiebreaker, winning 7-6 (7-5), carrying the momentum into the second set and winning 6-3.
Nevertheless, the longest match of the day was No. 4 singles and senior Ziv Rapoport. The match was a close game from the beginning. Back-and-forth rallies happened throughout the first set, in which he came back to win 7-6 (9-7). For the second set, no one on the Aragon team was left other than the coach, while Carlmont had most of their team cheering for his opponent. Exhaustion was evident in their faces with frequent sighs from both sides, both using their last bit of stamina, yet Rapoport pushed through taking the victory after two hours 7-6 (11-9).
Moving forward, to continue with the success of the team, Owdom is hoping to see even more improvements.
“I’d like to see improvement in groundstrokes, especially with singles guys,” Owdom said. “For the doubles, we had some issues serving a little bit today. Serving issues usually are two things. Most of the time, it’s a toss. Toss is the hardest thing to do in a serve. And if it’s too low, it goes in the net, or you speed up your mechanics and you’re way ahead of the ball.”
As the reigning champion team of the CCS, the team’s primary focus is ultimately on the mental game.
Their next game will be on March 13 at 4 p.m. at Burlingame.
