The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

    Boys’ tennis remains undefeated in league

    By Austin Block

    With an undefeated league record, the boys’ tennis team is closing in on the Mission League title. The team was 7-0 in league and 16-4 overall before yesterday’s league match against Crespi, which took place after press time. Prior to the game, the team’s league win streak was over 100 games long.

    The team finished fourth in the Dana Hills Tournament.

    The team lost narrowly on games in the semifinals to the top seeded team and then fell again in the match for third place. Besides those two losses, the Wolverines have only fallen to perennial powerhouses Peninsula and Santa Barbara, both of whom defeated the Wolverines last year as well.

    Since the loss to Santa Barbara, the team has won six in a row, including four league victories. The team has beaten each of its league opponents at least once.

    A few of the players also competed in the prestigious Ojai Tournament, which began April 20. The tournament’s website says that its history stretches back to the late 1800s. Famous tennis players Jack Kramer, Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, Jimmy Connors, Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport, and the Bryan brothers have all played in this tournament.

    Chris Kenney ’10 and Matt Wagner ’11 played as a doubles team and made it to the quarterfinals in the Boys CIF Division. Jackson Frons ’12 played singles and lost in the second round in the same division.

    Alums Ryan Thacher ’08 and Hillary Barte ’07, who both play for Stanford, played in the Pac-10 Championships part of the tournament. Thacher lost in the semifinals and Barte made it to the finals in both doubles and singles.

    The team won the Bay Area Classic for the fourth time by beating Santa Monica 11-7 on April 14, after defeating Mira Costa 10-8 and Palisades 12-6 earlier in the season.

    The team’s biggest upcoming matchup will be against Brentwood.

    “We’re definitely rivals and winning this will help us get a good seed for CIF, so it’s a big match,” Jamie West ’12 said.

    “We’re going to try a few different doubles formulas,” Head Coach Chris Simpson said.

    The team concludes its regular season on May 3 against Chaminade.

    “I think we’re a talented team. We have everything we need to win,” doubles player Spencer Suk ’10 said. “We just need to focus and make sure we consistently give a strong effort and hope for the best.”

    Last year, the Wolverines reached the semifinals of CIF before falling to University 13-5. The team will begin CIF on May 12.

    “We have really good camaraderie and we get along well and I think we can make it pretty far in CIF,” West said.

    If the Wolverines reach the finals of CIF this year, they could meet University again.

    “They’re really good this year,” West said. If we’re doing really well in CIF we might have a shot but they’re a strong team this year.”

    “It’s really up in the air,” Suk said. “I think there are a handful of teams that are just as good as us, so on any given day, any team could win.”

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    Boys’ tennis remains undefeated in league