Tennis team rallies to the first round of CIF

On May 10, the boy’s tennis season came to an end in the first round of CIF with a rough loss, 1-17, against University High School. Despite their disappointing early defeat in playoffs this year, coach Wilston Poon believes  the season has been rather satisfactory. His young group of players played the way they were supposed to, winning more than half of their league games. Next year, their ambition of playing better will lead them to more competitive results. “University was undoubtedly superior throughout the whole game,” Poon said. “Their team’s experience has been shown at the courts every single second of the game today, there’s nothing really we could have done to change the final score.”The season for boys tennis began with an unlucky losing streak of three defeats due to the lack of some key seniors that left last year. Poon was aware of the need to enhance his younger players’ strengths and make them believe they had the technical abilities to do well. From there, the team won the rest of the games with the exception of one against Beverly Hills High School. However, Beverly wasn’t an obstacle for Poon’s team.Despite having lost their last game, Matthew Morawiec (’17) looked back at the season full of optimism.“I thought the season went as well as could be expected,” Morawiec said. “We had some solid wins and close matches, but there really weren’t any disappointments overall. I was happy to see everyone doing his job.”Furthermore, like in all sports, the team will need to adjust to the departure of some important seniors. The team’s philosophy will be molded to be able to take the best from all the new players. Poon sees it more as an opportunity rather than a loss.“In regards to next year, we will be missing a significant amount of seniors which at the moment are key players,” Poon said. “At the same time, their departure will give the opportunity to some really talented guys to take on a leadership role so it isn’t something that keeps me awake at night. I believe our genuine talent is still yet to come.”Morawiec is one of the key players leaving this year and has played four years in the tennis program.“One advice I would give to new or returning members of the team is to focus on getting better rather than winning,” Morawiec said. “If you follow this advice, your time on the team will be much more rewarding.”