Varsity Boys’ Tennis Team Ends Almont League With Full Force

KEVIN KONG
Sports Editor

Approaching the end of the season, the tennis team has been practicing assiduously every day. The team currently holds an Almont League record of 3-5 with wins against long time rivals, the San Gabriel Matadors. They currently hold a rank of third place and though the boys may not be able to win the title of champions as a team, they hope to qualify many players and place individually as singles and doubles in the Almont League Finals on May 6-7 in Whittier Narrows. The team recently qualified to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs for the first time since 2012.

“By playing matches, we are seeing who we will need to play in league finals and what we need to work on individually to excel at this year’s finals. [We have achieved our goals by] procur[ing] wins, and our losses are close so we know we were definitely heading in the right direction,” senior singles player Arie Quintanilla said.

In preparation, the boys continue their routine regimen in order to develop fundamentals and improve collectively. According to junior doubles player Brendan Poon, the team has become more vocal with one another and created a strong team chemistry throughout practices and games.

“Our team is conditioning more in order to become physically prepared for three long sets that we have to play [each game]. We have also implemented other methods [in] preparation and in terms of skill, we have tried other methods of practice to help the team get a different perspective of the game,” Poon said.