Boys’ Tennis Smashes Brentwood High at PCL Quarterfinal

Martin Yoon, Staff Writer|May 20, 2022

Martin Yoon

In their second match, junior Chris Li prepares his footwork for volley while senior Daniel Tu makes his second flat serve.

Boys’ tennis (8-4) defeated Brentwood High 11-7 at the tennis courts on May 9. Eight out of nine wins were in the singles’ bracket, and three out of nine were in the doubles’ bracket. 

After winning the 2021 CIF Division 2 championship, boys’ tennis moved up to Division 1 for the 2021-22 season. While tougher competition was expected, especially for the singles compared to the previous season, single players and senior AJ Moore and junior Sufyan Ashraf swept all three matches, according to head tennis coach Natasha Schottland. 

“We had a big win from Sufyan Ashraf, who is our line three singles, and he beat their number one,” Schottland said. “That’s a pretty big match. The number one from Brentwood is very good, very highly ranked. So that was a very big win for Sufyan, and he wanted a tie break.”

Double players were at a tougher position in the beginning, losing all three matches to Brentwood High’s first line double. Third line doubles duo and junior Chris Li and senior Daniel Tu lost to the second line duo by a tie break.

“We are not used to having a huge audience,” Li said. “So especially in the tiebreaker and the second set, a bunch of people start just staring at us on the side. And I just got nervous and choked.”

Nevertheless, the doubles duo quickly bounced back in the match against the third line and made a win. 

“There were some issues with line calls in our first match, so it was hard to come back from, but we still managed to come back from the wind,” Tu said. “So it went well, good job from us.”

A crowd of  students and team members stood next to the courts, cheering the players and providing support and energy. The team was able to quickly adapt, come from behind and win because of the overwhelming energy surrounding the tennis courts, according to Ashraf. 

“Staying calm, staying calm, staying calm, not getting too frustrated after missing a shot, because you can always get back into tennis” Ashraf said. “Tennis is a sport where you can always come back no matter how down you are. You haven’t lost until you lost. So you just keep going, keep fighting and do the best you can.”