Clark Shannon ’17 gently tosses the bright yellow Wilson tennis ball into the air. With perfect form, he brings up his blue racket and hits the ball delivering a 98 MPH ace. The referee yells “Point.”
The Jesuit Ranger Tennis Team increased their record to 2-0 with another win this past Tuesday. In their season opener against Plano East last week, Jesuit pulled off a big win by the score of 10-4. Although Plano East had been widely regarded as one of the top teams in the DFW area, Jesuit managed to win by a fairly large margin. Then just days later in their second team match, Jesuit easily cruised past Sunset by the score of 12-0. When asked about the team’s success, Carlos Riddle ’17 commented, “We have just really been playing well lately. Everyone has really been coming up big in their matches, and we have really been playing like a team.”
Pierre Craig ’16, Campbell Frost ’16, Hayden Kissee ’17, and Clark Shannon ’17 all matched up against some of the best players that Plano East had to offer, and all four won their matches by the score of 2 sets to none. Clark Shannon ’17 told the Roundup, “It was a great game. I was able to give it all I had, and luckily in the end, the match fell my way.” His enthusiasm towards the match was echoed by Head Coach Paul McDaniel who said that he “knew our top 8 can compete head to head with anyone in town. We just weren’t sure of our depth.” Luckily, depth was most definitely not an issue as Jesuit triumphed over Plano East.
Days later, in the match against Sunset, Jesuit asserted their dominance again. Freshman tennis players Kota Ueshima, Austin Aiken, and Max Moundas all won their matches in their first games as Jesuit Rangers. Hayden Kissee ’17 commented that “The way that we are playing right now… I think we could play with anyone in the area, and we will only get better as time goes on and as we get more comfortable playing with each other.”
Jesuit looks to continue its success through the tough matches coming up in these next few weeks, playing both Allen and Highland Park. Although both of those teams are renowned for being tennis powerhouses, we will undoubtedly see a great effort from the Jesuit tennis team.
Make sure to go out and support the Jesuit Rangers tennis team in their tough upcoming matches next Tuesday and Friday as they take on Allen and Highland Park!
