Boys tennis beat the Blair Blazers 6-1, April 28, and the BCC Barons 6-1, April 27, improving its record to 7-1.
After losing to the Wootton Patriots 7-0 Friday in their first regular season loss in over three years, these two wins were important in defining their outlook for the rest of the season.
“Every year we haven’t even considered losing,” number one singles Pablo Gottret says. “But this year we knew from the beginning that we were going to be the underdog in this match.”
Wootton, whose team is composed of four nationally ranked players, had the upper hand in every game.
“In every matchup, their player was just slightly better than ours,” coach Jasen Gohn says. “ However, I was really impressed with how hard everyone played and that nobody gave up.”
Gohn says theloss was expected, but his reaction was not.
“I thought losing this game would make me really upset and discouraged,” he says, “But after the match I realized how well everyone played and how good of a fight every player put up.”
The closest match was between number two singles players Michael Kader and Wootton’s Eiichiro Okuyama. Kader was up in many games, but after winning the first set, Okuyama continued to dominate and won 6-4, 6-3.
“Michael played an excellent game,” Gohn says. “He wasn’t playing conservatively—he was really going for the deep shots and angles. He had the right approach to a match as challenging as this, and competed for the win the entire time.”
After the match, the boys had little time to dwell over their loss as they got ready for Churchill, which was scheduled for Monday but was rained out.
“I talked to the boys about the loss, but then told them that what’s done is done and all we can do is look ahead,” Gohn says. “Wootton was better than us that day, but we had to focus in on Churchill. In a way, it was helpful because we left realizing that it was a close match and excited to come back and play again.”
The Vikes can still come in second in the division and potentially win the county tournament. The county tournament consists of seven different brackets, where each level of player across the county has their own tournament.
“As number one singles, I’ll play against all other number one singles players,” Gottret says. “Although Wootton will still have an advantage, there is always the possibility of winning.”
The Vikes will take on the Sherwood Warriors at home Friday, and the Churchill Bulldogs at home Saturday, and will start the county tournament the following week.
