Boys’ Tennis: Falcons conclude league play, look to defeat rival Menlo in postseason

Senior Eric Gast closed out his last regular season match as a Falcon with perfection—literally.

Playing No. 3 singles in the Falcons’ final league match against Palo Alto on April 22, Gast won 24 straight points in the second set of his match, accomplishing a feat known in tennis as the “golden set.”

“It was just one of those matches where everything was going right, like how it feels to be in the zone,” said Gast. “The ending [to my last season] couldn’t have been better.”

Due to dominant performances throughout the season like the one by Gast, the Falcons have finished in first place in the De Anza league with a 12-0 record.

However, the tennis season is just beginning to heat up for the Falcons, who look to face rival Menlo in the postseason as the respective second and first seeds in tournaments like CCS and NorCals. There will almost certainly be a rematch of their game at the Corona Del Mar National Invitational, in which the Falcons lost a close 5-3 match to the Knights.

Although the Falcons came up short the last time they faced Menlo, head coach Tom Uyehara is optimistic about the team’s chances against them in the postseason. (The teams played a practice match yesterday on the SHS courts; results were unavailable because of printing deadlines.)

“Even though we lost that time, it was in a 5/3 format with five singles and three doubles matches being played by the same top four players each game,” said Uyehara. “I think we will have an advantage playing in a 4/3 format like the one used in CCS and NorCals because we’ll have 10 players in the game, and our depth is a bit better down the lineup.”

Sabada believes that the team will be able prevail if they meet again with Menlo because they have a stronger desire to win due to their tough prior loss against the Knights.

“We’re definitely looking forward to having a shot at getting our revenge on Menlo sometime in the postseason,” said player Deepak Sabada. “Until then, we’ll continue to compete the way we have been throughout the season and just wait for our moment.”