The boys’ tennis team exited the CIF-SS playoffs with a second round loss to Los Alamitos 10-8. Going into the final round of matches, it was tied 6-6. Patrick Hudnut ’16 and Adam Sraberg ’17 had given it their all to tie the match, ad the team was missing captain George Noonan ’16, who was out with a broken foot.
Stanley Morris ’18 gave the Wolverines hope by winning his singles match to bring the Wolverines to a 9-9 tie, but the doubles pairing of Sacha Pritzker ’18 and Kenneth Lee ’19 then lost the first match of the day. It was a loss that the Wolverines couldn’t recover from.
“It was a really disappointing match, but I’m proud of how hard we fought to try and win,” captain Jed Kronenberg ’17 said. “Apart from not having [Noonan], we were playing away from home, and Los Alamitos is notorious for having a really rowdy and obnoxious crowd, but we were able to fight through these issues and have the chance to win. The only problem was that we couldn’t take advantage of our chance.
“Even though we didn’t make it as far as we hoped in playoffs, it was still super fun because of how close our team was.”
The squad now changes its focus to next year, for which it has good hopes.
“While we are losing some important seniors such as Noonan, Hudnut and Jared Eisner ’16, we are returning most of our starting line up from this season,” Kronenberg said. “Everyone should come back more experienced and just better at tennis a year from now. I also know the middle school team had an undefeated season, so maybe a few stars from that team will be able to come in and play important matches for us next year as well.”
Jacob Tucker ’17 also has high hopes for the next season.
“Even though we lost Michael Genender ’15 and Jacob Adler ’15, we are getting three more nationally ranked players who are coming in as freshmen, so our next season is looking good,” Tucker said.
The one thing that the Wolverines think that they need to improve on is their strength in doubles matches.
“The way our team is set up now and next year requires us winning most of the doubles, as we are fairly deep throughout the starting lineup but do not have anybody that wins every match in singles like [Genender] used to,” Kronenberg said.
With these thoughts, the Wolverines are ready for a successful season next year. They will all work on their games during the summer either by themselves or with the team and try to improve from last year, Kronenberg said.
