Piedmont High School’s boys tennis teams won three matches in three days and is playing well in the early season.
The Highlanders started the week with a 7-0 win over visiting Athenian on March 20. Lucas Smolko beat Nico Vargas at No. 1 singles, 6-1, 6-1. Nate Welch defeated Dilan Shak at No. 2, 3-6, 6-2, 10-5. Ari Moscovitz downed Clark Li at No. 3, 6-1, 6-1. Emilio Misra took the No. 4 match over Liam Ru, 6-3, 6-3.
Joey Assalian and Ben Davis handled Chris Mui and Aiden Lin at No. 1 doubles, 6-0, 6-1. Henry Van Den Bos and August Collins defeated Rohan Shahi and Ian Kelly at No. 2, 6-2, 6-1. Maximo Miller and Hunter Fasteau beat Brody Reer and Andi Ni at No. 3, 6-2, 6-1.
Piedmont coach Jim Landes said the best match was Welch’s come-from-behind at No. 2 singles.
“Nate started off with too many errors of his own making – mistiming some balls and over-hitting others,” Landes said. “Then, in the second set he completely adjusted his game, slowing down his ground strokes, and getting to the net where he hit some beautiful volleys.”
On March 11, the Highlanders scored another sweep with a 7-0 win at home against Marin Academy. Smolko downed Jack Withers at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-0. Welch defeated Jackson Faber at No. 2, 6-0, 6-3. Moscovitz beat Cobb Young at No. 3, 6-1, 6-3. Misra survived a tough second set to defeat Jacob Felson at No. 4, 6-2, 7-5.
Assalian and Davis beat Lian Goldschmidt and Devan Grewal in No. 1 doubles, 6-1, 6-3. Van Den Bos and Collins defeated Asher Bram and Max Faber at No. 2, 6-3, 6-2. Miller and Fasteau downed William Portnoy and Liyam Adani at No. 3, 6-2, 7-6 (1).
“There were only two close sets in this match – Emilio Misra’s (at No. 4 singles) second set was 7-5 and Hunter Fasteau/Maximo Miller’s (at No. 3 doubles) second set went to a tiebreak,” Landes said. “Emilio is playing more aggressively this season hitting some powerful ground strokes and serves and it is paying off. Hunter and Maximo have both improved quite a bit this season. Both are serving much bigger and play very aggressively at the net.”
On March 12, Piedmont beat visiting Castro Valley in a West Alameda County Conference match, 5-2. Smolko defeated Guhan Anandkumar at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 6-4. Misra took down Matthew Rodriguez at No. 4, 6-4, 6-3.
The Trojans took the middle matches with Advaith Sathyanand beating Welch at No. 2, 6-2, 6-1 and Rahul Ramkumar downing Moscovitz at No. 3, 6-4, 6-4.
The Highlanders swept the doubles with Assalian and Davis defeating Seff Buhler and Elijah Song at No. 1, 6-2, 6-3. Van Den Bos and Collins outlasted Sam Hew and Jayden Chang at No. 2, 6-4, 7-5. Miller and Fasteau beat Anson Chan and John Zhuoan Chen at No. 3, 6-3, 7-5.
“Lucas has all the tools, big serves, powerful ground strokes and deft and touch at the net,” Landes said of his No. 1 singles player.
On March 7, Piedmont lost to Campolindo in the final match of the James Logan Invitational, 5-2. The Highlanders points came from their top two doubles teams. Assalian and Davis downed Teemu Miller and Munkhjin Odontuya at No. 1, 8-4. Misro and Fasteau defeated Finn Lindsey-Renton and Joshua Levin at No. 2, 8-4.
Campolindo’s Oscar Oehlschlager and Cade Williamson beat Miller and Carter Brookfield at No. 3, 8-4. The Cougars swept the singles with Daniel Shpolanski beating Welch at No. 1, 6-1, 6-1. Linus Wirstrom downed Mosckovitz at No. 2, 6-1, 6-1. Brady Adams defeated Collins at No. 3, 6-4, 6-2. Drew Kirchner ran past Van Den Bos at No. 4, 6-1, 6-0.
Prior to that, the Highlanders defeated Granada, Emerald, and Heritage at the tournament. In the semifinal on March 7, Piedmont beat Heritage, 4-3, taking three of the four singles matches. Welch defeated Obi Chidi at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 6-3. Moskovitz downed Ahaz Kassaye at No. 2, 6-2, 6-3. Misra squeaked by Jayden Ong at No. 3, 6-2, 7-6 (7).
The Patriots salvaged a point when Elias Reed-Miguel defeated Ethan Rajan at No. 4, 6-2, 2-6, 10-7.
In doubles, Assalian and Davis beat Ronin Pham and Geland Smithers at No. 1, 9-8 (7). Heritage’s Andrew Sherman and Rojan Mikael Habon downed Van Den Bos and Collins at No. 2, 9-8 (7). The Patriots Alex Reynolds and Harshith Polimera beat Miller and Fasteau at No. 3, 8-3.
On March 6, the Highlanders opened with a 4-3 win over Granada. Piedmont took two out of three doubles matches and split the singles. Assalian and Davis beat Logan White and Samuel Fischer at No. 1 doubles, 8-3. Adam Quibelan and Ethan Hammond downed Kyler Wang and Tanmay Gupta at No. 3, 8-6. The Matadors Boden Keller and Devin Seethow defeated Van Den Bos and Collins at No. 2, 9-7.
Moskovitz beat Griffin White at No. 2 singles, 6-3, 6-2. Misra downed Cameron Rosburg at No. 3, 6-1, 6-3. Granada’s Parth Mittal defeated Welch at No. 1, 6-4, 7-5. Piedmont’s Raphael Centeno beat Avaneesh Karthik at No. 4, 6-4, 6-1.
Piedmont then defeated Emerald, 4-3. The singles were split with three of the matches going to tie-breakers. Moscovitz beat Arnav Bhatia at No. 2, 6-4, 2-6, 10-8. Brookfield downed Rohit Srinivasan at No. 4, 2-6, 7-5, 10-8. The Aeronauts Aarav Shah defeated Welch at No. 1, 6-3, 6-4. Emerald’s Gursimran Sachdeva beat Misra at No. 3, 4-6, 6-2, 10-4. Assalian and Davis defeated Prithvie Jaisankar and Dhruv Kothari at No. 1 doubles, 8-3.
Fasteau and Miller downed Alexander Tudor and Felix Xu at No. 3, 8-2. The Aeronauts Pranav Sivakumar and Dhruv Ram beat Van Den Bos and Collins at No. 2, 8-3.
The Highlanders opened the season on February 26 at Acalanes with a 9-0 loss. Sze Ting Chen beat Smolko in No. 1 singles, 6-3, 7-5. Saaj Shah defeated Welch at No. 2, 7-6 (3), 6-2. Sze You Chen downed Moskovitz at No. 3, 6-1, 6-3. Bora Hoeberechts came from behind to beat Misra at No. 4, 1-6, 7-5, 10-8. Sammy Taylor edged Assalian at No. 5, 7-6 (4), 7-5. Cameron Fisher beat Fasteau at No. 6, 6-0, 6-3.
At No. 1 doubles, Kyle Shin and Blake Marshall rallied past Davis and Miller, 4-6, 6-2, 10-4. James Ammerman and Rhett Brewer beat Collins and Van Den Bos at No. 2, 6-4, 7-5. Christopher Gorham and Nolan Roberts beat Quibelan and Brookfield, 7-5, 7-5.
Piedmont was next scheduled to play at San Leandro on March 17. That will be followed by a March 19 match at Berkeley.