Boys’ tennis, 1-0, will be traveling to Culver City High to face off against the “very solid” Centaurs today at 3 p.m, according to coach Andrew Horen. It’ll be the team’s second match of the season.

The match will be good practice for the team as it will prepare them for some of the tougher teams in the league, Horen said.

“I don’t know much about Culver City’s team other than they usually are very solid, so I’m expecting a very close match,” he said.

This year, the varsity team is made up of all grade levels, including four singles players, and three competing doubles teams. They are led by captains senior Norman Maxey and Joseph Kung.

“As for the Culver City match, I think we’ll all approach the match as if it was a real one even though it is friendly,” Maxey said.

“We’re going to get onto the court and we’re all going to try our hardest to win.”

According to Horen, the players are very skilled, which works well to create depth in the team; however, it is difficult to build a set lineup because they have promising potential.

“We probably have six players that could all be number one singles, and even as far as doubles goes, there are so many interchangeable players, so that’s why we’re kind of still doing challenge matches,” he said.

“It’s a great problem for me to have as a coach, and it can be frustrating for the player sometimes, but I think by the time playoffs come around, we should have a really solid lineup.”

As far as improvements for the team goes, Horen said that the team needs to work on their serves, consistency, and not give away free points.

“Overall, I think we are going to need to improve our shots, getting up to faster pace, and extending the points to where our opponent gets tired,” Maxey added.

On Tuesday, the Gondoliers won their first home match of the season against LACES. The game marked many firsts for the team. 

“It was a big match because it was our very first tennis match on the new courts,” he said.

“They beat us last year, but this year, we won, and we won pretty handily.” 

According to Maxey, the highlights of the game included a double match with freshman Alex Du and sophomore Nate Berman playing for the Gondoliers. 

“It was their first time playing doubles as singles players, and they performed greatly.”

Horen said that he was also happy with the performance of the team against a very good LACES match-up.

“It was very windy and very cold, but our guys are used to practicing in that weather since there seems to always be wind on these courts whereas the other team did not handle the wind as well as we did, so no downfalls on that front,” he said.

Additional highlights during the meet included a very close three set match played by sophomore Ezell Jackson, and another victory against a very good LACES player won by sophomore Zach Lev.

“Our senior, Pouya Adabavazeh, also had a really good singles win,” he said.

“As for our number one doubles team, Nate Berman and Alex Du, they had a really good doubles victory, and senior Joseph Kung and junior Aidan Brady also had a solid doubles victory,” he added.