AJ Wolken staff writer
The boys varsity tennis team hit the end of their season against La Canada on Wednesday May, 9, being eliminated from CIF team playoffs in the first round.
While three of the team’s pairs: Alan Lubinsky and Louis Kunin; Brandon Lipper and Javier Valle; and Adam Stewart and Pouya Vaziri, were swept in their matches, senior Michael Huang earned two wins in his singles matches and junior Tyler Mehrdad contributed one win. To cap it all off, the doubles team of senior Jackson Stewart and junior Andrew Liner won all three of their matches, which brought the team’s victory total  to six and was enough to qualify the duo for the next round of CIF individuals for doubles.
Stewart was ecstatic about earning the opportunity to continue to compete in the tournament for the duo’s second consecutive year.
“Last year we won CIF individual doubles tournament, and this year we also made it really far because we have great chemistry,” Stewart said. “I have a great forehand and serve and Andrew has a great volley and backhand and we utilize our respective skill sets as much as we can. It feels good to know we have more to play.”
Singles competitor Huang was disappointed to have lost to the number one seed in the tournament, but felt that the team had a successful season as they definitely improved over the course of the year.
“Our season as a whole was not bad, but it didn’t go too well either. Some matches we lost, we could have won. Others that we won, we thought we would lose. In the end, everyone played their best, and if the term ‘successful’ is determined by if we came out of the season stronger and better, we definitely were successful,” Huang said.
Although the team’s season is over, there is work left to be done for Stewart and Liner. Liner is looking forward to the future competitions and looks to build off the strengths and correct the weaknesses from their blowout victory against La Canada.
“Jackson and I played well. We fought hard and created multiple favorable opportunities to win points. But we still need to execute better and put more balls away when we get the chance,” Liner said. “In the end, we are super excited for CIF individuals and will be ready to grind every point and bring home the W.”