Boys tennis remained undefeated with their 14-4 win against Portola on March 22.

This match was the team’s 13th consecutive win and was their last league match before the prestigious All-American Tournament. 

Senior Konrad Walter-Wu noted some difficulties in the warm-up but mentioned that the team bounced back quickly. 

“We didn’t get the best warm-up and it showed in the first round, but we were able to bounce back and will be sure to avoid a slow start again,” Walter-Wu said.

Overall in the season, senior Omar Khayat noted that team makeup has been a point of difficulty. 

“One of our biggest struggles is finding the best doubles teams since we have a lot of talent,” Khayat said. “We’re also working on building team chemistry as well and staying together during matches which isn’t easy with all the talent on the team.” 

For boys tennis, league matches don’t tend to present difficulty. Their bigger challenges come with CIF and other prominent tournaments. 

“I’m looking forward to taking back the CIF final trophy after barely losing to Harvard Westlake this year,” Khayat said. 

From March 25-26, boys tennis participated in the highly anticipated All-American Tournament. Sophomore SangHyuk Im noted the excitement of playing against other high-level teams. 

“We won the All-American Tournament, which is filled with arguably the best high school teams in the nation,” Im said. “We had routine wins against Arcadia, Claremont and Calabasas.” 

In the final, the team faced number one seeded Menlo and experienced a slow start in doubles before taking five out of the six singles sets to clinch the championship.

“After doubles, we were down 1-2, but we clinched and won 6-3 overall,” Im said. “The last time we won this tournament was in 2013, and we’re the only school that has won this tournament four times. Additionally, we went up against all these private schools that recruit tennis players, but we’re just a public school in Irvine.”  

Im expressed gratitude for the overall experience.

“I’m happy for the seniors to be able to experience this moment with us and thankful for Coach Kessler, Coach Mano and Coach Garrett for all they’ve done for us,” Im said. 

The team is on track to winning another league championship and their next game is April 12 against Irvine.