By Anneliese Duong
After an intense match against Corona del Mar High School (CdM) a week ago, the Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) boys’ varsity tennis team battled them again in their fifth league match. With the absence of a key player, sophomore Alan Ton, the boys were stabbed with a final score of 6-12.
In anticipation for CdM, they took their warmups and stretching seriously to ensure they were at their best physically.
“Coming into this match, we already knew that [CdM] was tied with us. This match was going to determine whether or not we’re league champions or co-league champions,” junior Jared Nguyen said. “We practiced our hardest, took a lot of serves on the weekends and worked on our match play.”
The results of their preparation shined brightly for doubles No. 2 junior Ethan Votran and Jared Nguyen. Powerful serves and returns, enthusiasm and teamwork helped the two leave no room for their opponents. They ended up dominating with scores of 6-2, 6-3 and 6-0.
“For today especially, I think I played really well,” Jared Nguyen said. “I was blasting it and killing it…I was on fire today. The clutch genes came in.”
This time around, doubles No. 1 senior co-captain Kai Rodriguez and senior Nathan Dang struggled against CdM’s doubles lineup. Their first set ended with a loss of 4-6 and a tiebreaker was involved in the last two sets. Rodriguez and Dang came out with a win of 7-6 but the score reversed in the next round.
Junior Ninh Nguyen mentioned how he was rather slow in the beginning. Thus, doubles No. 3 senior Albert Ly and Ninh Nguyen started off rocky but ultimately gained their momentum back. Their day ended with scores of 3-6, 6-4 and 6-3.
Unfortunately, the singles lineup was not able to win a set in any round. While that is the case, the boys’ commitment to making every point count stuck with them until the end.
The FVHS boys’ varsity tennis team with take a trip to Huntington Beach High School yet again in their last league match on May 5.
