The Varsity Tennis team opened their 2016 season at home on March 10 with a matchup against the Covenant School (Charlottesville, VA). After a three week preseason of weather extremes, a warm spring sun shone down on the courts of Hargrave’s Landon Tennis Center. In VIC team tennis, singles and doubles match victories each count as a team point; thus 9 points are possible from six singles matches and three doubles matches. Singles matches use the 10-game pro set format (first to win 10 games with a two game advantage; a tiebreaker is played if 10-all should arise) with ad (deuce points are played). Doubles matches are 8-game pro sets. Exhibition matches don’t count toward the team score, but are played when possible to give less experienced players competition exposure.
The end of the day left a young and relatively inexperienced Tiger squad on the short end of the contest against perennial powerhouse Eagles. Some early season hiccups and tentative play will certainly disappear as the season progresses. The final team score of 0-9 did not reflect the efforts at the individual match level.
Tiger Freshman Wilson Pegram (Charlotte, NC) led the charge against Eagles Senior Matt Rose with ruthless exchanges of heavy topspin shots had both players scrambling to return eye-high shots. Next to him, second-semester addition sophomore Mark Yee (Mooresville, NC) armed with his backup racket plunged into a fast and furious counterpunching battle as both players strove to develop points in one of the most interesting matches of the afternoon. The match found Yee in a hole 0-3, but he stopped the slide and battled back to 3-7 before the match closed out at 3-10 in favor of Eagle Bryce Boland.
Rounding out the top 3 was Hargrave’s veteran, junior Armel Ngabo (Kigali, Rwanda). At the #4 singles position was senior Alex Yancy (Durham, NC) making his debut as a Tiger as well as returning to tennis after a two year hiatus. His match turned out to be one of the longest as most games were contested despite the lopsided final score. At #5 singles, junior Rakan Alshinibr (Damman, KSA) moved from last year’s exhibition and low doubles role to open on the regular singles ladder. His match was similar to Yancy’s in that neither he nor his opponent were willing to concede any points. Rounding out the singles ladder was 8th grader David Kiesnowski (Appleton, WI) who showed great grit before succumbing to Covenant Junior Ryan Dube.
On the doubles side, Pegram paired up with Ngabo, while Yee was joined by junior Tyler Aichinger (Berlin, MD), returning to Tiger tennis after a year absence. Filling out the third doubles position were newcomers 8th grader Sebastian Richardson (Charlotte, NC) and 9th grader Cade Trahan (League City, TX).
Cadets Kiesnowski, AJ Stegman, Alex Braswell, Duc Nguyen, Ebrahim Al-Aghbari, Walter Thompson and Barry Chen were able to get in some additional exhibition matches while official play was finishing up.
The Man of the Match was Yee. Yee was able to persevere in the face of frustration at himself and the challenging course of both his singles and doubles matches. Tennis is a game of controlling and managing mistakes and misfortune. Yee maintained a positive mental aspect and in doubles, with the team match already decided, worked to encourage his partner as they built a foundation for future success.
Our next match will be at home against Carlisle School on Thursday, March 17.
Individual Match Scores:
Singles
#1 – Wilson Pegram v Matthew Rose : 0-10
#2 – Mark Yee v Bryce Boland : 3-10
#3 – Armel Ngabo v Noah Hollis : 0-10
#4 – Alex Yancy v Andrew Carson : 1-10
#5 – Rakan Alshinibr v Jacob Hollis : 1-10
#6 – David Kiesnowski v Ryan Dube: 0-10
Doubles
#1 – Pegram and Ngabo v Rose and Carson : 0-8
#2 – Yee and Tyler Aichinger v Boland and Dube : 1-8
#3 – Sebastian Richardson and Cade Trahan v Hollis N and Hollis J : 0-8
