Boys tennis defeated by Palisades 11-7 in first match of the season

Cameron Richter
Staff Writer

In their first match of the season, the Mira Costa Boys Tennis team took on Palisades High School on Tuesday, March 17th at Mira Costa. The Mustangs were defeated by Palisades, with a final score of 11-7

In the singles division, junior Alex Gaal was the only player from the Mustangs to win a singles game, as he defeated the #1 Palisades player with a score of 6-4. However, the Mustangs were much more successful in the doubles bracket, where juniors Blake and Tanner Suard won all three of their games.

“The team overall had very competitive matches and unfortunately lost by just a couple of sets,” Blake Suard said, “We look forward to more close matches and hopefully coming out with the win.”

Gaal was the most successful singles player, as all three of his matches were close in score. His one victory was impressive because it came against the Palisades’ best player. Against Palisade’s second best player, Gaal was defeated 2-6, then, against their number three, he lost 6-7 in a close and exciting game.

“Overall, the team played well,” Gaal said, “it all came down to a few close sets, but unfortunately we couldn’t get a win.”

Junior Jeremy Chung was able to keep his match against Pali’s number one close, but ultimately lost 5-7. Against the two, he couldn’t score and lost 0-6. Finally, against the three, Chung was defeated 4-6.

“It was a tough loss,” Chung said. “They’re a really strong team and it’s good that the match stayed somewhat close, but we have to step up and win those close matches in order to maintain Costa’s excellent standards.”

Julian Grunauer lost again the number two and three, with scores of 0-6 and 1-6, before being subbed out for Matson Haley, who lost 2-6 against Palisades’ number one singles player.

In the doubles division, twins Blake and Tanner Suard dominated their competition winning all three games. They defeated Pali’s number one doubles duo in a close 7-5 game. After that, the Suards won 6-3 and 6-0 against the number two and three doubles players.

“Tanner and I won all of our matches with a tough battle against their number ones,” Blake Suard said, “We were happy with our playing and glad to come out on top.”

Jason Wu and Bobby Sillman managed to win two of their games against the number one doubles team (6-3) and the number three doubles team (6-0). They were defeated by Palisades’ number two doubles partners 3-6.

“My partner Jason and I didn’t play our best in the first match,” Sillman said, “but we turned that around to win the next two against the number 1 and 3 to help our team get some points.”

Senior Matteo Carella and junior Adam Kassef won one doubles match 6-3 against the number three opponent. They lost to the number two 1-6 before being subbed out for Michael Watts and Robbie Zimmerman. They then lost to the number one ranked opponents 2-6.