As doubles teammates Nick Boesel and Holt Hanley took the win against Branson on April 25, they continued the two-year tradition of seizing the MCAL pennant. However, they were also setting a new record, finishing the entire regular season undefeated from preseason to non-league play to MCALs.
The boys’ varsity tennis team finished the regular season undefeated in both league play and in non-league tournaments, an accomplishment that hasn’t occurred in the past 28 years of the program. The team also beat Branson to clinch the MCAL title before their first loss of the season in the NCS semi-finals to number one seeded Miramonte.
The tennis season poses many challenges that make an undefeated record difficult to achieve, according to coach Paul Markowitz.
“Going undefeated overall is a pretty unique accomplishment,” Markowitz said. “Not only do you have to take down some pretty good teams in MCAL like Tam and Branson, but you have to defeat tough non-league opponents. We went to the California Tennis Classic in Fresno this year, which is the largest high school tennis tournament in the country. It’s incredibly prestigious, and we managed to go 5-0 and win our division there.”
Team captain Holt Hanley said the Fresno victory was a surprise to everybody, but encouraged the team to put in the extra effort to finish off the season strong.
“I didn’t expect to be completely undefeated,” Hanley said. “I knew we were going to be good, but I don’t think anyone expected that we were going to go this far completely undefeated, and it really motivated the team when we did.”
Hanley said one of the main reasons that the team has progressed since last year’s 19-6 season is that many talented underclassmen have complemented upperclassmen leaders.
“A lot of the freshmen this year are really contributing and making a difference,” Hanley said. “Three of our top six players are freshmen, but our number one is still a senior, Parker Silverman.”
Nic Barretto is one of the freshmen leading the team. According to Barretto, every player had to step up at various points to remain undefeated.
“It came down to our depth and everyone on our team giving it their hardest,” Barretto said. “Everyone’s played a match and everyone’s won a match.”
Hanley also said the team’s depth was the main factor that set the squad apart from opponents and past Redwood teams.
“Our team is insanely deep,” Hanley said. “In the past we’ve had two or three good players, but this year we have five or six standouts and everybody else is almost as good.”
The team’s talent won them the first two rounds of the NCS tournament, in which they beat Northgate High School and San Ramon Valley High School to continue the undefeated streak. The Giants’ first and only loss came last Saturday when they played the number one seed, Miramonte.
Despite getting up to an early 2-0 lead against their similarly undefeated opponents, Redwood lost after four unanswered matches cost them the competition. The Giants gave Miramonte their closest match in two years, and the team is hopeful that it can keep up that success next season.
“We’re graduating more players this year than in any year since I’ve been coach,” Markowitz said. “We’ve got six seniors leaving us, and all six were significant contributors. But we’ve got a good strong core of freshmen and sophomores and a couple juniors like Nick Boesel and Dillon Foehr, who are great leaders, so I don’t think we’re going to miss a beat going forward next year.”
The team is going to need to keep up the hard work in the future in order to maintain its MCAL title, according to Markowitz.
“Once we’ve gotten a taste of victory like this, we don’t want to let it go,” Markowitz said. “We don’t want to go undefeated one year and then just regress the next. We’re the top team now, and so people are going to be gunning for us and our position like we have a target on the back of our head, and we need to defend our title and maintain that level of excellence.”
