Despite missing five of its starting players because of AP testing and injuries, the boys’ tennis team still managed to pull off a 4-3 victory in the CCS quarterfinals on May 12.
Four of the missing players could not play in the match because of scheduling conflicts of the AP Physics test. These included junior Neel Bedekar, the team’s No. 1 singles players, junior Hans Sun, who plays No. 2 doubles, and seniors Jeffrey Chen and Henry Ling, who both play No. 3 doubles. The team was also missing sophomore Karthik Padmanabhan, the team’s No. 2 singles player because of a season-ending injury that occurred at the end of the regular season.
Senior co-captain Sanjay Kaliyur said the team originally had 12 players, so coach Florin Marica brought up freshman Matthew Kermin and sophomore Avinash Arjavalingam from JV into the starting lineup.
Since CCS regulations allow teams to put players anywhere in the lineup, coach Florin Marica put all the singles players, with the exception of freshman Andre Xiao, into doubles hoping to sweep doubles and have Xiao win at No. 4 singles.
Marica then defaulted No. 1 singles, automatically giving Cupertino a free match and put the Kermin into No. 2 and Arjavalingam No. 3 singles.
Cupertino also changed its lineup by putting the No. 1 and No. 2 singles players at 3 and 4 singles. In addition, the No. 3 and No. 4 singles players also got moved to No. 2 doubles.
“They thought they could surprise us with the change in lineup to come up with the win,” Kaliyur said. “However, we countered them well by playing well and winning some clutch matches.”
The team will play the semifinals of CCS at the Los Gatos Swim and Racquet Club against Menlo-Atherton high school on May 14. If the Falcons win, they could end up play Menlo School in the finals on May 16.
