A battle of men, back and forth, a green ball of fuzz is smacked from side to side. An audience twists and turns their keen heads to keep track. The grind for match point continues. The only sound is the squeaking of constantly moving shoes and the grunts of the players as they try to win the point with each ball they strike. What will happen next?
The athlete wearing Jesuit attire eventually wins out. Game-Set-Match. This cycle occurred a total of 13 times in the Jesuit tennis team’s latest encounter against the Richardson Berkner Rams, the Rangers sweeping their opponent 13-0.
“It was a dominating performance by a very solid all-rounded team,” said sophomore Max Moundas. Coach Paul McDaniel added that it gave “the younger guys…some valuable playing time,” indicating the depth of this Jesuit tennis team on their 2016-2017 campaign.
The highlights of the match included the impressive performances of the freshman class that indicates a bright future for the team. Freshmen duo Diego Trejo and Reid Staples cleaned their opponents in straight sets in singles, extending their perfect record as a doubles pair and destroying their opponents 8-1. The win for the talented freshman pair raised their record to 5-0 this season. Following their example, the other freshmen did not back down from the challenge, with both Patrick Moore ’20 and Trey Ashmore ’20 demonstrating a strong bond of teamwork in their solid performance in both doubles and singles.
The season started with a strong 3-0 start for the Jesuit tennis team, and the sign of this year’s glory to come has continuously been demonstrated in this team’s success so far.
In the harsh heat of late September, coinciding with College Night, the Rangers were once again demonstrating the power of their depth, using just underclassmen to impressively tame the Lake Highlands Wildcats with a score of 8-3. The doubles teams came out 4-0 after an overpowering performance by #2 doubles of junior Nico Cornejo and sophomore Kota Ueshima, winning 8-2, and a decisive win by #1 pairs of Diego Trejo and Patrick Moore rallying back with an 8-6 victory. With an already built lead, Jesuit won the singles battle 4-3 to take home another “W” for the tennis team.
W’s followed as the Rangers crushed new foe Liberty Christian, starting with #1 doubles of Hayden Kissee’17 and John Lindberg ’18 effortlessly using their maturity and experience to win in straight sets, 6-1 6-1. This happened across the board, each doubles and singles matches providing a win for Jesuit, finishing with their second clean sweep at 21-0. The opposing coach, Darren Snyder, amazed by the depth and competitive-spirit of the team, admitted, “one day I want my team to look like Jesuit.”
Clean sweeps continued to follow on the Jesuit tennis team like rain, as their next opposition, W.T. White Longhorns, consecutively lost 6 matches to add to Jesuit’s season-opening 6 game winning streak.
The only loss that the team has encountered in this very successful season so far has been against the Highland Park Scots, the #1 Ranked 5A High School team in Texas, who are renowned for their dominance in the Dallas-Fort Worth regions. The doubles proved a strength of the Jesuit team in this encounter, freshmen Diego Trejo and Reid Staples crushing their foe 6-0 6-2 at #3 doubles, and #1 doubles of Hayden Kissee ’17 and John Lindberg ’18 demonstrating their power over opponents Cole Houseman ’17 and Matt Wojo ’17, 6-2 6-4. While the end match score was 8-4 in favor of the Scots, 2nd set tiebreaker losses from both sophomore Kota Ueshima and junior Nico Elizondo and a tight 3rd set loss at #2 doubles of juniors Alex Giebler and Nico Elizondo demonstrated how hotly contested this match was. Only a few points and errors determined the outcome of the overall score.
“Losing is never fun, but our guys gave HP everything they had! A better team beat us but I’m proud of how the team played today!” Coach Paul McDaniel stated following this tough defeat, impressed with how far the team has come and a firmly believing that it will do better in the spring when it will play HP again on April 8th.
Currently, Jesuit has a winning record at 7-1, demonstrating the depth of the team in this new class of strong freshman players as well the leadership exhibited by the upper class, teaching the team the respect and competitive spirit Jesuit fights with. Jesuit will hope to continue the success they have achieved thus far in the next match at John Paul II on October 20th.
