Continuing their winning streak against the Panthers, Carlmont’s varsity boys’ tennis team beat the Burlingame Panthers 6-1.
After beating the Panthers earlier in the season, the Scots anticipated for Burlingame to return stronger.
“We kind of knew what to expect coming in, which was different from the first time, but there was a little bit more pressure on us to perform, given that we had beaten them 6-1. We knew Burlingame was going to bring it,” said No. 1 singles seed Aran O’Sullivan.Â
The first match to wrap up was the No. 3 doubles match. Senior Eric Gerber and Junior Conrad Hsu represented Carlmont against Burlingame’s Kieran Kilgo and Spencer Phonsombat. A teammate change was made in the order shortly before the match began.
“I was playing against two different people as opposed to the last time we played Burlingame. Also, I had a different teammate than last time, so we both needed to adapt to each other’s play styles,” Gerber said.
The pair quickly adapted to the changes, and Hsu and Gerber won the first set 6-0. Despite Burlingame’s efforts to recoup points in the second set, Carlmont was victorious and scored 6-0 in both sets, giving them their first point in the matchup.
The adjustments made in the No. 3 doubles are not uncommon for the Scots’; their roster is constantly moving and evolving.
“We’ve had lots of guys out recently. So a lot of the team has been playing in a new seed,” said Head Coach Marcus Beltramo.
Next, the No. 2 doubles seed wrapped up. Gabriel Rui and Jayden Chow finished 6-4 and 6-2 in their sets against Burlingame’s Luke Amdursky and Dylan Hanson and added another point to the Scots’ tally. Quickly after, Jun Choe and Ethan Htun won the No. 3 and No. 4 singles matches.
Then the Scots lost their only match of the day when Andrew Cruz lost to Burlingame’s Chinma Rao
The last two games on the court were the No. 1 doubles seed and the No. 1 singles seed.
In the doubles for the Scots were Jay Motamarry and Vikram Kacholiya against Ryan Gyde and Ari Mishra for the Panthers. The first set was fought hard by both teams. In the end, the Scots won the first set with a score of 6-5.Â
The second set was no different. All four players battled it out until the end. Carlmont was again victorious, giving the team another point against the Panthers.
The last match running was the No. 1 singles seed. O’Sullivan was playing against Burlingame’s Arda Inegol. O’Sullivan and Inegol were one of the only seeds that stayed from Carlmont and Burlingame’s previous game.
“His playstyle was a little bit different this time. He was definitely hitting harder,” O’Sullivan said.
After an energetic two sets, Inegol and O’Sullivan tied, winning one each. This resulted in a 10-point tiebreaker to end the match. For the tiebreaker, line guards were employed. Since CCS tennis doesn’t use official umpires, one Burlingame coach and one Carlmont coach stood in as line guards.
After the two played a spirited tiebreaker, O’Sullivan won, and the Scots were successful in their second contest against the Panthers.
“Splits are what we train for. We’re always doing a lot of conditioning for those third set situations when you’re tired, you’ve been playing a long match, but I think that’s what helped me outlast my opponent,” O’Sullivan said.
The Scots look forward to closing out the rest of their season, including their upcoming games against Menlo-Atherton High School on Friday, April 7, and Aragon High School on Tuesday, April 11.
