Perhaps only the Falcons could be disappointed with a third place finish at the nation’s premier high school tennis tournament, the Corona Del Mar National High School All-American Boys Invitational in Newport Beach March 20-21.
The team, coming in as the third seed, placed third in the USTA-sanctioned event, which featured 16 top teams from around nation, with some teams even hailing from places like New York City, North Carolina and Idaho.
“Overall, I’m happy with the way they played-the boys felt that they could have done a little bit better but we’ll get a couple more chances in CCS and in postseason,” said head coach Tom Uyehara.
The team fell to yearly rival and No. 2 seed Menlo School in the semifinals 5-3, but recovered to defeat 4th seed R.J. Reynolds (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) 6-2 to take third place in the tournament. Menlo, also the defending CCS champ, went on to defeat No. 1 seed University High School (Irvine) in the finals to win the tournament.
“Hopefully things will go a bit differently next time around and I think that after seeing them [Menlo] play, I can better prepare the lineup for the next time we play them,” said Uyehara.
The team defeated Providence Day School (Charolette, North Carolina) 8-0 and Palisades High School (Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles) 7-1 in the first and second rounds of the tournament.
“There was no real easy match as each team had a number of high level players,” said Uyehara. “However, Menlo has proven that they are our most challenging opponent and will present the most problems for us.
“I think our goal now for all these matches is to really build on and strengthen our weakness and areas of improvement, hopefully so when we play Menlo we won’t make the same mistakes as we did the first time around,” said Uyehara.
The team is currently undefeated in De Anza league match play, having won the last eight matches against Los Gatos, Homestead, Monta Vista, and Gunn in dominating fashion.
“I’m happy about our performance [at the national tournament] because it gave me a chance to see the guys play at a higher level because in league we aren’t really challenged too much with these matches since we have such a highly competitive team,” said Uyehara.
“Other than that, I think we have so much depth in our team that there are not too many other teams that can compete with us further down the lineups.”