On May 6, the boys tennis team swept Central Mountain, 5-0, in the semifinals of the District VI Tournament and moved on to play Hollidaysburg. On May 7, the team defeated Hollidaysburg with another sweep and secured the district championship and a berth in the PIAA State Tournament.
In the final match of the district tournament, singles players Mark Sandow, William Liu and Jude Cessna faced Hollidaysburg’s Garrett Bouchard, Felix Xu and Michael Waibel.
Sandow won his first set 6-2 and his second set 6-1. Liu won his first set with a score of 6-1 and his second 6-0. Cessna won his first 6-0 and his second 6-2.
Along with the singles, State High teams of Ishan Sharma and Peter Novikov, and Evan Zhang and Dash Nealon played doubles.
Zhang and Nealon faced Jacob Sidney and Amir Azad from Hollidaysburg and had a harder start but still managed to pull out a win in their first set 6-4.
“At the start, you always have that little bit of nerves. This team has worked really hard, we’ve been undefeated all season, we all want a win really bad, and even though we have these sort of nerves, it’s about getting past that early in the match and being able to play better and that’s why we rebounded in the second set,” Nealon said.
Nealon and Zhang dominated their second match with a score of 6-1.
Nealon explained what helped them secure the win. “Me and my teammate Evan’s chemistry on the court and all the hard work we’ve been putting in practice,” Nealon said. “Although we didn’t play the best today, we were still able to get the win through just sort of wanting it a lot and working hard in practice and sort of sticking to the fundamentals.”
Sharma and Novikov played Yvan Chen and Arbogast and dominated the court, winning their first set 6-1 and their second 6-0.
Novikov described what contributed to their win. “Positive attitude and collaboration. … There weren’t too many stressful situations. We were just having fun, and that made everything else less stressful and gave us the win,” Novikov said.
Head Coach Jane Borden credited her team’s connection and offseason work in the victory.
“Our team is so close-knit and so close together. They worked incredibly hard in the offseason, and so this is the culmination of putting that all together and playing our best today,” Borden said.
She explained their advantage: “Holidaysburg is always a very good team, but today they couldn’t get going, and that was due to the way our guys started the match. We played really well today. … Our biggest strength, I think, is our camaraderie; they all push each other, they all genuinely care about each other, and they’re incredibly hard workers, so put all that together and it makes a really good team.”
Nealon further described the team. “We have the best community on the tennis team. … They’re some of my lifelong friends,” he said.
“They all work really well together … and everything just works great, I don’t know what else to say, they’re wonderful people,” Novikov said.
The state tournament is up next for the boys’ tennis team. The Little Lions will face Lancaster Country Day School on May 13 at the Summit in Altoona.
“I like our chances,” Borden said. “That’s who we played last year. We only lost because we were a man down last year. So this year we’ve got a full squad and I think it’s going to be a good match.”
