On April 2, the boys’ varsity tennis continued its winning streak with a 6-1 sweep against Branson. This was their second time playing the Branson School Bulls this season after dominating them the first time with the same score of 6-1.
Despite Branson being one of the team’s biggest rivals, sophomore Julien Zhang came into his match with an optimistic mindset.
“We’re undefeated the last two years [against Branson], so I would say we are coming into [the match] pretty confident,” Zhang said.
With killer serves and consistency, Zhang took home a victory for the Giants in his line one singles match with a crushing score of 6-1, 6-1.
Zhang wasn’t the only singles player who blew away the competition. Despite recently recovering from an injury, sophomore Alejandro Puentes swept up a win of 6-0, 6-0.
“I was a little bit nervous considering how I haven’t played in a while and just trying to get back into [playing], but after playing good at the start [of the game], I got more confident as the match went on,” Puentes said.
Puentes had previously played and pulled out a win against the same opponent in the Giants’ last Branson match, but this time, instead of losing four games, he didn’t let his opponent get a single game.
Despite their strong performance, Branson was predicted to be one of their more difficult opponents compared to others in the league. Sophomore Calado Fazal had this in mind when competing in his line two singles match.
“Branson is our biggest competition in the Marin County Athletic League,” said Fazal. “We try to go into every match with the same mindset, but we knew that this one was gonna be harder, so we had to raise our level.”
Raising his level was a successful move for Fazal, as it scored him a 7-5, 6-1 win in his match.
Coach Craig Flax carries an encouraging mindset about the future of his team as they are lower classmen-heavy. He predicts that this will give the team a solid next few years as the top players still have a hefty amount of time left to show off and hone their skills.
Following such an exceptional performance, the boys will take on Archie Williams on April 3 at 4 p.m. at Redwood.
