The Palo Alto High School’s varsity boys’ tennis team lost to Sacred Heart Prep 5-2 at Paly on Wednesday.

The Vikings only won two of the eight matches they played. Shiv Matta (‘16) easily won his first set 6-1, and due to injury, only played the single set. Adrian Smith (‘17) also easily won his singles match, winning the first set 6-2 and the second set 6-0.

However, the Vikings fell to the Gators in the other six matches. Coach Andy Harader believes it it is not all about a lack of talent.

“We had a lack of focus and motivation,” Coach Harader said. “There was a lot of senioritis, since we only have one more match in the season and we aren’t going to make the championship. I’ve seen generally less motivation today for some of the players then there has been before.”

However, Harader believes that the underclassmen are bringing a lot to the table.

“My freshman are doing tremendous. They are motivated, going after it, and practicing,” Harader said. “[Upperclassmen] are out here having fun, but there is no motivation to perform. I mean I see that [our performance] could be [because of] the lack of leadership from this year, but hopefully that will improve next year.”

All three doubles and two other singles lost their matches. Drew Embersits (‘16) barely lost in his first set 7-5, but could not make a comeback, losing the second set 6-2. Freshman duo Anthony Georgiadis and Adam Love lost both sets 6-3.

“We played worse than average, but it wasn’t terrible,” Georgiadis said. “We hit good ground strokes, but we made a few too many errors on clutch points that were necessary to win important games that would have changed the set.”

The boys’ tennis team plays its last game against Monta Vista at 3:30 p.m. at Palo Alto High School.