Paly boys tennis did not disappoint this season, as they picked up right where they left off from last season, coming just short of a league championship with a record of 9-2. 

Although they did not have a strong start to open the season, losing their first game to Lynbrook 6-1, they quickly bounced back winning all of the matches they played until natural causes temporarily put them on hiatus. 

“The rain really messed with our schedule, as almost every single day for two to three weeks, it was just raining and we did not know if we would have a match or not,” senior Ayush Singh said. “We could not even practice as the courts were soaking wet and were left with nothing to do. Days that started out nice eventually turned into a downpour and ruined our matches, leading to tough doubleheaders we had to play.”

The doubleheader matches proved difficult, as they narrowly defeated Los Gatos twice, both by a final score of 4-3. But for the rest of the season, they did not drop a single match, including sweeps against Fremont and close matches against Santa Clara and Wilcox. But they could never get over the hump of Lynbrook as they dominated Paly every single time, proving themselves to be the league champions.

“Lynbrook was a fierce competitor all season and they deserved the league this year,” Singh said. “I wish them the best of luck in the upper league next year.”

Despite the setbacks, the team still managed to have a competitive, fun season.

“Overall I think the season went really well,” junior Dhruv Shetty said. “The season was a lot of fun and we had a nice team community this year.”

The team looks to make adjustments heading into next season, as there were still areas for improvement.

“We have a lot of strong players but we need to work on playing with each other more,” Shetty said. “We became too focused on individual competitiveness rather than winning games.” 

While they did not make it to CCS as a team, Tyler Kuo (‘25) qualified for the CCS tournament for singles. He lost in the first round, however, as he couldn’t get past Menlo Atherton’s Alex Parikh-Briggs, losing in two sets. 

The team had multiple All-League honors however, as Kuo and Beckett Annes (‘24) were honored as the top singles players in the league, while the duo of Watson Koegler (‘24) and Dhruv Shetty were honored as one of the top doubles players in the league. 

With this group of strong upperclassmen next year, they look to finally win the El Camino League and promote themselves to the De Anza League next year. 

“I think our underclassmen could finish the job we started and have a great season next year,” Singh said. “I hope to come back home and see that they won League next year.”