The sun was out and anticipation was in the air as the boys’ tennis team made their way to San Dieguito Academy High School for the first round of CIF Tennis Individuals, April 24. The competition for Tennis Individuals is split up into two types of matches: singles and doubles.

Tyler Kastenholz (11) and Justin Zhang (11) had to mentally prepare themselves for the CIF Tennis Individuals, April 24, at San Dieguito Academy, as this would be the first competition they would be playing as a pair. The two had some doubts about their ability to win their matches due to their lack of playing together. However, by the end of the day, they were the only Westview doubles pair who would move on to the next round.

“It was a little surprising that we were able to get far because both of us played singles a lot in the season [and weren’t used to playing doubles together],” Zhang said.

From the boys’ tennis team, the top 15 players are selected to compete in the CIF Individuals and have a choice of playing in singles or doubles. Despite playing singles for most of this season, Kastenholz said he made the decision to play doubles for a different experience. They both have previously played in doubles with different partners since freshman year. Last season, Zhang competed in doubles with his brother who was a senior at the time, and Kastenholz competed in singles. Kastenholz said the two were put together in hopes of creating a strong pair since the two are powerful players individually. According to Zhang, he hits more consistently, while Kastenholz goes for more direct shots.

“We both didn’t feel like playing singles again for the individuals tournament,” Zhang said. “We wanted to have [more] fun and experiment a little bit.”

The team entered in the Coastal League instead of the Palomar League like last season. Kastenholtz said the Coastal League is known to be more difficult for singles players. “I don’t think for singles we would have been able to make it as far,” Kastenholz said. “For doubles, I [thought we had] a good chance [of making it far].”

Since their League finals against CCA, April 25, Kastenholz and Zhang have been hard at work preparing for their next match, May 10.  After being at a stalemate between multiple different schools in San Diego for a spot for preliminaries, they are currently seeded 6th in the San Diego section of CIF Individuals.

The two have been putting in as much practice time as possible, and have recently been able to get more support from coach Rene Malcuit. Officially, the two are the only ones required to attend practices. However, some of their teammates still show up to help them at practices and to play scrimmages.

“I feel like we’re still kind of working things out when it comes to our strategies [because their way of playing is] definitely more for singles,” Zhang said.

During practices, the two have to build off of each other. Kastenholtz said they have different playing styles in how they approach games, which has its advantages and disadvantages.

“I feel like a lot of it we have to improvise,” Zhang said. “[During practices] we talk about what has been working and what hasn’t been working.”

Kastenholz said that it has been stressful carrying the weight of being Westview’s final remaining representative in the individual tournament. However, Zhang said that they are both proud to have the opportunity to represent the school.

“We are also the youngest people to qualify because the rest of [the doubles pairs] are seniors and we are the only juniors,” Kastenholz said.

Despite the odds being against them, the two have hope in their ability to continue to strengthen as a doubles pair as they put in their best efforts toward practice.

“I feel like [we] have a lot of potential,” Kastenholz said. “[We’ve] gotten a lot better and I feel like we will keep getting better. If we lose, I want to [to think] we did the best we possibly could.”