After school on a Thursday afternoon on March 29th, the sun was hidden behind the clouds, leading to a cool evening and an excellent day to play tennis. The Rangers soon arrived to play against an up-and-coming St. Marks team comprised of mostly lowerclassmen. The Jesuit Tennis Team easily thought that this victory would not be too hard to clinch; however, as the matches started that day, the team quickly realized this was not the case.
The first matches to go onto the court were the top six players. As a note, these are the six who will represent Jesuit this coming week at district because of their impressive skill and talent. Despite this, the varsity six had to play against a deceptively difficult St. Marks varsity team that played hard, creating many close finishes. The first team to finish was the line one doubles team of Campbell Frost ’16 and Hayden Kissee ’17, who unsurprisingly won their match against St. Marks’ top two players, coming out on top by the scores of 6-2, 6-4. This type of dominant performance was expected from one of the best doubles teams in the state for 6A tennis, as they continued their undefeated spring season.
Although the number one doubles team finished quickly and dominated the court, the rest of the matches in the top six did not follow the same pace. The line two doubles team of Matthew Salazar ’16 and Ethan Kissee ’17 barely managed to come out on top, wining 7-5, 6-4. After the match Kissee went on to explain that, “This younger St. Marks team is nothing to laugh at. They are going to be an incredibly tough team to beat not only right now, but in the future as well.” Line one singles player Pierre Craig ’16 finished next, barely losing a close match 6-2, 2-6, and 7-10 in a long match lasting over two hours.
The final member of the top six, John Lindberg ’18 squeezed out a win 6-4, 6-4. With the Jesuit Ranger tennis team up in sets three to one, the rest of the day looked promising. But, despite the lead, the St. Marks Lions rallied back to win the next two crucial matches, only barely winning both in third sets. The score was tied at this point with the last four matches going on to the court. The Rangers needed at least three of these matches to win the whole event overall. After the first two matches of the final round ended, both Jesuit and St. Marks had won one match apiece, leaving the final two matches open to decide who would claim victory. The final matches were the pairs, Federico Pier ’16 and Tony Tedeschi ’16, playing their last match at Jesuit and Kota Ueshima ’19 and Max Moundas ’19, playing one of their first matches in their long Jesuit tennis career. As the sun set on the St. Marks courts, the matches reached an end. The senior team pulled out a win 6-2, 6-3, while the freshman team lost their final match of the spring season 6-4,4-6, and 10-6. This meant that the final match total was five to five. If a tie occurs amongst two teams, the win is given to the team who wins the most sets. Luckily, with twelve sets won to compared to the measly ten by St. Marks, the Jesuit Rangers won their final full team match of the spring season. After the matches ended, Tony Tedeschi commented, “I really thought our team would pull out a more decisive victory, but the overall match against St. Marks is usually very close, and this year was no exception.”.
With the Rangers winning their second to last team match, their last full team match of the season, the tennis team looks forward to districts this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. Although Jesuit has managed to dominate districts the past two years, it is never good to underestimate an opponent. That said, each member of the top six is seeded number one or number two in the tournament, foreshadowing a positive result for districts and regionals in the following month.
