Boys’ varsity tennis undefeated in league

Joyce: ‘The team comradery makes my job easy’

Boys+tennis+team+practices+for+CIF+tournament.+The+varsity+boys+team+was+undefeated+in+the+2019+season.

Rebecca Zait/Talon

Boys’ tennis team practices for CIF tournament. The varsity boys team was undefeated in the 2019 season.

As of now in the 2019 season, boys’ varsity tennis has not lost a single game.

Although the team went undefeated in the 2018 season, boys’ tennis head coach Carl Joyce said that things have changed since the last season.

“Losing four starters when you only have nine players, [it was like losing almost] half our starting lineup,” Joyce said.

Freshman Arnav Khury, who plays doubles on varsity, compared this year’s team to last year’s team.

“Our last season we had a lot of good players, four tournament players, but they were all seniors,” Khury said. “We lost [our seniors], so our team’s a little bit weaker, but we still won every one of our games in the league. Overall, our team I think is pretty solid.”

Despite transitioning with a new group of players, Coach Joyce has an optimistic view on the rest of the season.

“I think we have a really good shot at winning the league again this year, which was not planned. We didn’t think we were going to be able to pull that off,” Joyce said.

Varsity player and freshman Trent Chu said, “This is my first year on the team. [It’s been a] great experience.”

“This season’s been pretty great, we’ve been having fun being undefeated. We had to work hard to get here,” Chu said. “We’re playing some great competition and coming out on top, thriving through every game, fighting for every point. The rest of the season’s going to go by pretty fast. Hopefully we’re going to come out top in the league and make it past CIF.”

According to Joyce, in addition to putting in a lot of hard work, the team also works well together.

“Everyone gets along really well,” Joyce said. “A lot of these guys knew each other and were working on getting on the team as seventh and eighth graders, so they’ve known each other for a long time just through tennis. I’d say the team comradery makes my job easy.”

According to MaxPreps, the OPHS boys’ varsity tennis team is up 10-0 in the Coastal Canyon League.

“I’ve been seeing on our scoreboard a lot of wins,” varsity sub and junior Shane Pekar said. “It feels reassuring. I’m around some really good players, so I think I’m also getting some good practice and experience from them when I play against them.”

Coach Joyce wrote to the Talon about his goals for the next season.

“Our Boys’ team has dominated league for the past 4 years without losing a league match and we are looking forward to really tough competition at the D1 CIF team tournament,” Joyce wrote. “I think next year will be the toughest challenge for us to stay in #1 position for league. I do my best to encourage the guys to play year-round. GO EAGLES.”