Boys’ tennis: Falcons gear up for success with new players

No. 1 Singles Kosei Ogata serves in a match against Los Gatos, and the Falcons ultimately won 6-1.

With a 2-3 record, the team plans to adopt a better mindset and encourage one another to bolster teamwork.

Head Coach: Florin Marica

Last year’s record: 7-1

Recap: The Falcons tied for first in the league and advanced to the CCS Semifinals, where they fell to Menlo 7-0.

Key Matchups: Cupertino, Menlo

Star Players: Seniors Ben Bray (No. 3 singles) and Anthony Zheng (No. 2 singles), sophomores Johan Amirineni (No. 4 singles) and Kosei Ogata (No. 1 singles)

Key losses to graduation: Mithil Chakraborty, Anay Koorapaty, Avy Koorapaty, Stefan Meier, Coen Poelman

League: De Anza

Prognosis:

Ending the 2020-21 season with a short-lived CCS run and a 7-1 regular season record, the boys’ tennis team is working toward continuing their momentum and starting the season off strong.

As of March. 17, the Falcons have a 2-3 record: a 4-3 loss against Homestead on March 8, 6-1 win against Los Gatos on March 10, 5-2 loss against Gunn on March 15, 4-3 win against Los Altos on March 16 and 5-2 loss against Cupertino on March 17.

In the face of these mixed results, they plan to continue improving their skills, having better mindsets before games and making sure they encourage one another.

While the singles positions have been finalized, including sophomore Kosei Ogata (No. 1 Singles), senior Anthony Zheng (No. 2 Singles), senior Ben Bray (No. 3 Singles) and, sophomore Johan Amirineni (No. 4 Singles), the team is also still experimenting with doubles combinations.

“Especially with certain players preferring a net-game or baseline game, it’s tricky to find the players who work the best together so early into the season,” Bray said.

The varsity squad has new additions including freshmen Sarang Narasimhan, Teddy Oyang and Alex Lu, and juniors Luke Wang and Areen Mehra.

“The freshmen are pretty solid, and they’re a great addition to the team,” said Ogata.

Despite their positive outlook for the season due to strong new additions to the team, the team remains on guard for their biggest obstacles in last year’s CCS run, Menlo and Bellarmine.

After their 6-1 loss against Bellarmine two years ago, the Falcons are working toward strengthening the team as a whole and maintaining a good record if they play them later this year in CCS.

“I think with a little more focus and practice, we could easily beat our opponents by going into the game with some fighting spirit,” Bray said. “Sometimes players mess around just to have fun because they compete so much outside of the school matches, so I think we just have to buckle down from now for a great season.”