By Karen Hsueh
Copy Editor
The boys’ tennis team kicked off their first league match against Monrovia High School on Friday, March 20 with a dominant 15-3 win.
Junior captain Sagar Raju represented the Tigers for number one singles, beating all three of the players on Monrovia’s singles team 6-2, 6-1, and 6-0 for number one, two, and three, respectively. Sophomore Jesse Chen played number two singles with a 6-2, 6-2, and 6-0 record against the Wildcats. Senior captain Lenn Kushigemachi beat the number two and three singles players 7-5 and 6-0, but lost against the Wildcats’ number one in his first singles match of the year.
“The transition from playing doubles to singles was surprising at first, but I’m happy with the results that I was able to bring to the team,” Kushigemachi said. “There were definitely many parts that I felt I needed to work on, and I want to improve to be a more consistent player under pressure.”
The Tigers paired junior captain Casey Corvino and freshman Nick Corvino together for the first time in number one doubles. The brothers beat Monrovia’s one, two, and three teams with strong scores of 6-0, 6-2, and 6-0. For number two, sophomores Jason Cai and Kevin Huang played together, tallying two wins against number two and three with 6-3 and 6-2, while losing to number one in a close 5-7 match. Senior Bruno Cavalier and junior Ali Nazari played number three, beating Monrovia’s number one 7-5 and number three 6-0, but losing to the number two with a disappointing 1-6 score.
“Overall, we played pretty well. We were very focused and played the best we could,” Huang said. “Although we lost a couple of matches, we still pulled through and did what we have to do.”
