Boys’ Tennis Looks to Grow Throughout Season

Despite losing some key players from last year’s squad, the boys’ tennis team remains optimistic that they will have a successful season and will continue to improve throughout the spring.

 

“We lost three players from last year who were towards the top of our lineup,” said head coach Patrick Hensley. “We have some different double pairings from last year and kids who played doubles last year are now playing singles, so it will definitely be an adjustment for some of the players. I think once everyone gets used to their partners and new positions, we can pick it up a notch and get some tight wins.”

 

The Knights are currently 1-1 after finishing last season 5-10. Gill earned its first win of the season by defeating Franklin 4-1 on April 8. Ryan Shin ‘21 won an extremely close match in second singles to earn Gill’s first victory of the season. Andrew Margolis ‘20 followed up by convincingly winning his third singles match. The doubles teams of David Isserow ’22 and Tyler Lynch ’20 along with Dara Nourbakhsh ’19 and Frank Xiang ’20 were also victorious.

 

The only player to drop his match that day was Evan Matthews ’20 as he fell in first singles, but Hensley has been happy with his development and leading the way by taking the top spot in the lineup.

 

Hensley is also optimistic about the program changing divisions this season, and he believes the different competition will be good for the team.

 

“We had a lot of tough matches last year against some elite talent,” said Hensley. “I am excited for the guys to face new teams, and it is always fun to have a change in opponents. I am definitely looking for us to be competitive in all the matches and finish over .500. That would really help in building the program.”

 

Along with dual meets, the Knights will be participating in the Somerset County and Prep Championships later this season.

 

“A big goal of ours is to get through the play-in rounds of the championship matches,” said Hensley. “It would be awesome for the kids to get that experience and have that reward at the end of the year, so we will keep improving and hopefully it can happen.”