On Monday, April 25, the Phoenix boys tennis team faced off against the Tuscarora Huskies and came out with a commanding victory of 5-0. Despite being down their top seed player, the Phoenix prevailed.

With their top seed being out, junior Akash Vangala moved up to play the top seed, followed by freshman Chiristian Bhide at number two and junior Harsha Antham at number three. All three players secured their wins through each of their matches.”It was pretty calm and easy,” Vangala said. “We won 9-0. But they were out a bunch of starters, so we can’t really use this win [to justify] anything. 

For Christian Bhide, a freshman who plays in the three position,  it was the sense of focus that was priority, even with this mismatch.“We just went out to win and compete, and do our best,” Bhide said. His biggest take away from the match was to stay focused regardless of the level of the team they are facing.

A lot of the starters took this match as an opportunity to test a few new strategies. “I won 8-0, everyone else also went 8-0,” Antham said. “It wasn’t the match you were expecting-since a lot of their players were either sick or injured, but we learned what we could, and moved on.” 

In doubles, the Phoenix kept the momentum going. “We started off a little slow,” Bhide said. “But then we found our rhythm and won 8-2.” 

With this win, the Phoenix extended their streak. “We are undefeated,” Vangala said. “We lost in a close match in the semi-finals at states last year, so we are looking for revenge.”

The Phoenix’s next match is on May 8 against the Dominion Titans.