Head Coach: Florin Marica
Last year’s record: 11-1
Recap: The team finished first in the league and qualified for CCS where they fell to Harker in the semifinals.
Key Matchups: Harker, Homestead, Los Altos and Menlo
Star Players: Senior Somei Ogata, senior Nikhil Srivatsa, junior Akiva Goldwasser and sophomore Riki Toram
Key losses to graduation: Alexander Lu, Theodore Oyang
League: De Anza
Prognosis:
Last year, the boys’ tennis team made school history with a first place sweep in both singles and doubles. Ogata won the SCVAL singles title; Goldwasser and Srivatsa secured the SCVAL doubles championship. The team fell to Harker in CCS semifinals, but Goldwasser and Srivatsa still went on to win the CCS doubles championship.
Coming off one of its most successful seasons in years, the team enters the spring season with high expectations. Although key players Alexander Lu and Theodore Oyang, who competed in No. 1 doubles, have graduated, freshman Samuel Cao, Arhan Garg and Vishak Pillai stand as promising additions to the team.
“They bring good energy and passion to the team,” head coach Florin Marica said. “It’s nice to see such hardworking and dedicated players added to the team.”
No. 1, 2 and 3 singles are consistently senior Somei Ogata, senior Nikhil Srivatsa and junior Akiva Goldwasser. However, Marica is still tinkering with lineups, and No. 4 singles and No. 1, 2 and 3 doubles are susceptible to change between senior Andre Popa; juniors Joshua Amirineni and Sina Mohtaj-Khorassani; and sophomores Riki Toram and Achyut Karthikeyan and freshmen Cao, Garg and Pillai.
Practices are held daily except Fridays, with a flexible structure led by Marica. Because many players train competitively outside of school, Marica allows for a more adaptable schedule which varies between Red and Blue Days. Blue Day practices typically run from 3 to 5 p.m., and on Red Days, players with a free period arrive earlier while those without one arrive after school. Given the individual nature of tennis, full-team attendance is not always required, as players only need one hitting partner to partake in most drills and rallies.
In practices, players are mainly focused on match-play with drills interspersed. This year, the team is looking to build on last season’s historic success.
“Our goal is to win the league, go to CCS and win CCS,” Goldwasser said. “We want to win both singles and doubles CCS and at least make the finals and advance to states.”
As of March 13, the team is 4-0 in the league. They won 6-1 against Cupertino on March 3, 6-1 against Cupertino on March 5, 6-1 against Homestead on March 10 and 5-2 against Monta Vista on March 12.
