On April 8th, Boys varsity tennis had their first match of the season against Avon. The team, whose top four players all have played varsity tennis for 3 or more years, looked strong.

The captain of the team, Alec Cardenas ‘17, was playing number one and had shown great improvement from last year. As a leader, he brought a strongly positive atmosphere to the team.

The day began with doubles matches, in which Cyrus Chao ‘18 and Jeremy Krisberg ‘18 lost a close set, with a score of 6-8. Alex Douglas ‘17 and Cardenas won the second set 8-5. Mark Khalil ‘18 and Dani Le Quang ‘18 played the last set, but lost.

Playing singles, Cardenas seemed able to control the momentum of the game and create opportunities. While he lost the first set 6-2, Cardenas made adjustments in the second that brought the game much closer. In the match point, he was down 40-30 and Cardenas almost managed to bring it to a deuce, however he was just barely off the mark with his last shot.

The captain felt that, “[he] played a great set where [he] was able to control the pace of the game to force [his] opponent to the baseline.” Even though he lost, Cardenas felt he made great improvements in his gameplay from the previous seasons.

Cardenas was also very positive, keeping a smile on his face the entire time and encouraging his teammates that were playing next to him. This positive attitude seemed to boost morale across the whole team, as the two courts next to him won their matches.

Number two Chao won his match in two sets (7-6 and 6-3) and number three Krisberg also won his match in two sets (7-6 and 6-1). Jack Ellis ‘18 won his match in 2 sets, both 6-1 victories, but Khalil and Douglas lost their matches, leaving Kent with a nail-bitingly close 3-4 loss to Avon.

Coach Mr. Hunt stated that the team is, “a tight-knit group,” very good at controlling the backline and the pace of the game and not making many mistakes.

Looking forward, the team has some of their most difficult matches coming up. The next four games include Hopkins, with their top two players being seeded among the top 10 in New England, as well as Brunswick, Taft, and finally Kingswood-Oxford, whose number one player is number one in New England and among the top 15 in the United States for his age group.