The Falcons lost their first two games against Cupertino on March 10 and Monta Vista on March 10, both with scores of 20-10.
Returning players hold the top spots on the team. Sophomore Stephen Ding plays at No. 1 boys’ singles, junior Josh Li and senior Partha Shah at No. 1 boys’ doubles, junior Megan Fung and senior Amanda Rhee at No. 1 girls’ doubles and junior Spring Ma and senior Michael Owyang at No. 1 mixed doubles.
Key new additions include freshman Nicholas Zhang, Mark Guidry and Sherrie Shen.
In the game against Monta Vista, the top team in the De Anza league last year, many of the Falcons played close games.
Zhang, the No. 2 boys’ singles player, won his first set. In his second set, Zhang tied 20-20 but managed to pull ahead to secure the set 22-20.
Ma and Owyang also won their first set, but their opponents managed to win the second set 20-22 and went on to win the third set.
“We lost our momentum in the second and third set and lost a lot of consecutive points,” Owyang said. “After winning the first set, they adjusted to our play style and next time we need to make more adjustments to counter that.”
Similarly, there were many close matches throughout the match against Cupertino. Junior Mason Tian, the No. 3 boys’ singles player, won his first set but struggled to finish the game as his opponent clawed back and won the next two sets 21-17 and 21-16.
“My opponent broke my momentum by just clearing all the time and I couldn't set anything up,” Tian said. “In the future, I need to work on changing my pace so that I can catch my opponent off guard.”
Similarly, Li and Shah faced a tough opponent from Cupertino, losing in two sets.
“We need to play more so we can be more fluid on the court,” Li said.
Mixed doubles No 1, mixed doubles No. 2 and boys’ singles No. 2 all lost their first sets but managed to come back and win their next two sets.
Assistant coach Chris Do attributed the Falcons’ loss partly to the gym’s lighting and the higher roof at Cupertino, which caused the players to make mistakes they normally wouldn’t have.
“Small mistakes can turn costly and will affect the overall score,” Do said. “That's something we're going to work on so we can prevent [our loss] from happening.”
After these initial losses, the Falcons are looking to learn from their mistakes.
“It's good experience for a lot of the younger players, and we can switch around our strategies and target the their weaknesses when we play them later,” Owyang said.
Due to printing deadlines, the Falcon was unable to cover the March 15 game against Gunn.