Piedmont High School’s boys tennis team defeated visiting Lick-Wilmerding-San Francisco on March 22 by a 7-0 score. The win improved the Highlanders to 5-4 on the season.
Lucas Smolko defeated Saahil Mishra at No. 1 singles, 6-4, 6-3. Ben Breber returned from an illness to down Este Liu at No. 2, 6-4, 7-5. At No. 3, it was Piedmont’s Ethan Pham beating Quin Riemer, 6-0, 6-1. Brady Colbert beat Nathan Rivera at No. 4, 6-4, 6-2.
In doubles, Nate Welch and Monte Imburg beat Joel Collier and Andrew Eidelhoch at No. 1, 6-3, 5-7, 10-7. No. 2 Arun Brahma and Nick King defeated Andrew Chou-Belden and Isaac Anwar, 6-4, 5-7, 10-3. Willie Tenney and Graham Alban beat Sam Birtwistle and Noah Pak at No. 3, 6-4, 6-4.
On March 20, Piedmont defeated host San Leandro, 4-3. Nick King won the No. 4 singles match over Dylan Stauffer, 6-2, 6-3, but the Pirates took the top three matches. At No. 1, Elijah Cho beat Smolko, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 7-6 (8). Simon Cho downed Pham at No. 2, 6-4, 6-4. Ket Bunset defeated Brahma at No. 3, 7-5, 4-6, 10-6.
Fortunately for the Highlanders, they swept the doubles. At No. 1, Imburg and Welch defeated Joshua Savage and Korey Dang, 6-1, 6-2. Tenney and Alban beat David Zhu Yang and Sander Modena in the No. 2 match, 6-0, 6-0. Xiaowei Elias and Alex Zalewski beat Jack Lei and Jarrett Feinstein at No. 3, 6-0, 6-0.
On March 17, Piedmont fell at Miramonte, 6-3. Smolko got the lone singles win for the Highlanders, defeating Will Stokes at No. 1 singles, 6-4, 6-0. Cameron Berg beat Pham at No. 2, 6-3, 7-5. Gavin Dille defeated King at No. 3, 6-1, 6-0. At No. 4, Jonah Elias downed Colbert, 6-0, 6-3. Gunther Uriarte took the No. 5 match over Zalewski, 6-3, 6-2. Evan Mishkin beat Derek Chan at No. 6, 6-2, 6-0.
Imburg and Welch won the No. 1 doubles match over Ryan Meyers and Dylan Browning, 6-1, 6-2. Tenney and Alban teamed up at No. 2 to defeat Ryan Gardner and Griffin Ting, 3-6, 6-0, 11-9. Miramonte’s Hudson Straub and Shane Watters beat Xiaowei Elias and Chris Li at No. 3, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.
On March 16, Piedmont beat visiting Mt. Eden, 6-1. The lone Monarch victory came at No. 3 singles, where Zach Berg had to retire due to an injury, which Highlander coach Jim Landes said would be season-ending. Piedmont won two matches by default and only allowed Mt. Eden to win two games in the remainder of the matches.
On March 15, the Highlanders fell to visiting University-San Francisco, 7-0. Daniel Ravel beat Smolko at No. 1 singles, 6-0, 4-6, 10-4. R.J. Kuo defeated Pham at No. 2, 6-0, 6-0. At No. 3, Caden Cook downed Imburg, 6-2, 6-4. Rohan Kumar beat Welch at No. 4, 6-4, 6-4.
At No. 1 doubles, Cole Boake and Henry Burton defeated King and Brahma, 6-0, 4-6, 10-7. Johan Prejavav and Eli Lum beat Tenney and Colbert at No. 2, 6-2, 6-3. Jonas Roseman and Lathrop Chung downed Alban and Li at No. 3, 6-2, 4-6, 10-6.
The next match is scheduled for March 28 at home against Berkeley.
Photos by Damin Esper