Under the beating sun on Tuesday, the Viking tennis team served and volleyed against strong competitor, Saratoga High School. Unfortunately, the boys failed to pull out the win, losing 2-5.

Both number 1 singles and number 1 doubles lost their matches. Blake Smith (’14) fought against Saratoga’s number one singles player, each game of the two sets incredibly close. Finnish exchange student, Mikael Lassooy (’13) and Aditya Mahadevan (’14) dueled against the number 1 doubles team in a tiebreaker but lost as well.

Austin Leung(’14) won his single’s match 6-2, 6-1. Then, Jack Paladin (’14) and Kevin Huang (’15) secured the team’s second win in their doubles match, 6-3, 6-4.

Despite this loss, the team looks to improve individually and to advance as a team.

“I think I could probably have missed a lot less and I think that spring break might have thrown me off a little bit but I’ll come back for the next game and work on my consistency and be ready for the next one… I think we’re coming along, our practices are pretty productive and everyone’s getting better,” Smith said.

Lassooy shared the same opinion.

“Well we came to win but we knew it was going to be hard and we just have to work really hard for the next one,” Lassooy said.

The team looks forward to CCS and continuing to play together, though.

“Well tennis is fun and team tennis is even more fun, and we’re like a family out here. We all support each other and help each other get better, so who knows how good we’ll be at the end of the year,” Smith added.

On Thursday, the team plays Lynbrook, away.