By Anneliese Duong
Fountain Valley High School’s (FVHS) varsity tennis teams faced the Marina Vikings on Tuesday and ended with an exceptional victory. The boys’ varsity team had a final score of 14-4 and the girls’ varsity team had a final score of 17-1.
Although Tuesday was a cold and windy day, both singles and doubles for each team performed outstandingly, easily winning many of their sets. Senior Paige Ngo, doubles partners with senior Christy Chau, felt they performed up to par with their strong optimism throughout the match.
“I felt like we were going to play really well today. I really liked everyone’s energy as we all matched hair [in braids],” Ngo said. “Christy and I played really well [also]. We kept our energy up and pulled through with our scores of 6-0 and 6-1 [in the first two sets].”
As for singles, singles No. 2 freshman Sophie Vu came into the match ready to play.
“I knew our singles were going to be tough, coming from Marina [High School]. They’re a good school so I had to be ready for them,” Vu said.
Although Vu fell short in the first set, she redeemed herself in the last two sets with scores of 6-3 and 6-1.
Other outstanding performances came from doubles No. 1 senior Kai Rodriguez and senior Nathan Dang as well as doubles No. 2 senior Albert Ly and junior Ethan Votran from the boys’ varsity team as they swept the scoreboard with 6-1, 6-0 and 6-0.
“My expectations were that we were going to play very well,” Rodriguez said. “Overall, our doubles lineup is doing pretty well… we stayed confident [during our match].”
For boys’ singles, singles No. 3 senior Devan Pathak personally felt he could have done better in his set.
“I didn’t perform up to par as I would have expected to but at the end of the day, it’s only a loss if I decide not to learn anything from it,” Pathak said. “But if I can go home, work on my game and try to revise what I was lacking, then I can take a small victory out of that.”
Overall, the FVHS varsity tennis team displayed extraordinary skills against the Vikings. As the season progresses, both teams will continue to improve and play with 100% effort.
“The most important thing is that we’re all playing. With COVID, we could not play so it’s the best thing to see all the kids out there playing … having a great time and competing,” head coach Harshul Patel said. We started [very well] and now we want to finish [well]. That’s what we’re hoping to do with our performances.”
