Boys tennis fell 11-7 to reigning CIF champion Canyon Crest Academy, March 25. Captain Pio Ryu (12) said the game tested the team’s resilience.
“CCA is a very difficult team to play,” Ryu said. “They have a lot of depth in their team. They have a lot of solid players across their singles and doubles lineups.”
Despite the loss, Westview still saw strong individual performances. Ian Yang (9) stood out, winning all three of his sets, 6-1, 6-3, and 6-0.
“We had a lot of standout performances across the board on our side,” Ryu said. “It’s important that the scoreline stays as tight as possible, and although CCA is really tough, something as a team we’ve been working on is for [the players to] trust themselves and to trust in their own ability to be able to perform where they want to be.”
Despite winning all three of his matches, Yang noted earlier in the week he had to work on adjusting his technique, through making changes to his serve.
“I recently fixed my serve with my coach,” Yang said. “I used to toss the ball higher so my timing with hitting the ball would be longer. After switching my toss to be shorter and lower where I can be more explosive, it messed up my timing with my whole swing and so it was difficult to pace the game for myself. You always want to be more aggressive on your serve, and that week it wasn’t what I wanted it to be, so I was trying to figure it out during my matches.”
Yang’s second match started off in CCA’s favor, with Yang being down three. Trying to balance performance with technique was mentally challenging, according to him.
“I struggle often when I’m trying to switch something about my technique because since scores matter, my performance has an impact on our team,” Yang said. “I want to perform my best while also using the new technique I’ve learned. So it was hard mentally, where I wanted to use the new pointers, even though it made that match harder. But I know in the long term it will definitely help me.”
In order to adjust under the pressure, Yang relied heavily on his self-talk.
“I was trying to process a lot mentally, and trying to keep myself calm and remind myself of what I’m supposed to do,” Yang said. “I got through a lot of pressure points by talking to myself, like: what types of shots I should do and some of my observations about my opponent, and I was able to overcome a lot of tight points and come back.”
Doubles players Adith Nagarahalli (11) and James Zhu (11) played an especially close game, resulting in a win for Westview after a 6-6 tiebreak.
Zhu said the weather conditions added another layer of difficulty.
“Crazy glare from the sun made it hard to track the ball in the air when tossing the ball up for serve,” Zhu said. “We were up 3-1 at first but then they came back 4-3, so we really needed to lock in and hold our serves while breaking theirs.”
The tiebreak went seven points.
“We were one point away from losing the game in the tiebreak as the opponents were up 6-5,” Zhu said. “[Nagarahalli] hit the shot to tie us back up 6-6. That moment gave us the confidence to close the match out, eventually winning 8-6 in the extended tiebreak.”
Zhu said team support played an important role in getting through the match.
“Being down in that first match really made the team nervous about the outcome,” Zhu said. “[But], the team responded by cheering us on and providing great support.”
Ryu said the mental aspect of tennis is the most challenging.
“Tennis is a very mentally draining sport,” Ryu said. “It is the hardest part of the game. [It’s] very draining overall because of all of the pressure. You have to play a pressure point almost every other game, points that are just really important to make sure that the scoreline stays as tight as possible.”
For Yang’s second match, when he was down, he described a mindset shift that helped him regain control and come back to win his match, 6-3.
“It was tough because I was playing someone that was a higher level [than me], and it was a bad start,” Yang said. “I was down, and in my brain, I was struggling because I wasn’t playing my best. I knew I was on-paper, a better player than him, and I had better shots than him, but my strategies weren’t really working out. I was trying to figure out what I could do to target his weaknesses, but you have to stabilize your mind and your emotions so you can focus more. In the beginning of the match, I was thinking too negatively, where I was like, ‘why am I missing?’ I was thinking about the problem, blaming myself, really. ‘I’m hitting these weird shots. I’m hitting these balls that I shouldn’t be hitting, or I’m going for crazy shots that I know I can’t make really often.’ And then I switched to more of a mindset of like, ‘I’m playing like this right now. What can I do to change the situation? What can I use that I have right now to be able to get my edge and beat him?’”
Overall, Ryu said he was proud of the team’s performance going against one of the best in the county, and that the team will continue to focus on improving their mentality and consistency in high-pressure situations.
“Even though the scoreline didn’t go our way, I think it’s really important that there is always the possibility and option of being able to perform in the next match, especially when we will likely rematch them in CIFs going forward,” Ryu said. “What we can work on as a team is being more positive in those tense moments. So really believing in ourselves, I think that’s what’s most important for our team.”
