Tennis aces division

With a stellar 9-4 season overall and a 6-1 record within its division, the boys tennis team captured the Division II title and will move up to Division I next year.

The team's only divisional loss came in the Blazers' Apr 28 match against Springbrook High School Blue Devils, where they were defeated 3-4.

At the end of the season, the Blazers finished tied with Richard Montgomery High School and Springbrook for the title. Since the Blazers had won 67 games in its matches during the season, they won the tiebreaker and were awarded the title. The team completed the regular season with five shutouts, its highest number of 7-0 wins in many years.

For the previous two seasons the Blazers were considered the favorite to win the Division II championship, but their hopes were dashed when they lost crucial matches towards the end of each season.

Coach David Ngbea was pleased with the Blazers' season. "The bottom line is that we won the division. I was very satisfied," he said.

Ngbea added that the team needs to practice in the off-season in order to make up for the small amount of time during the season that players have to learn new techniques. "We don't have enough time for them to really master skills, so they need to make sure not to put their rackets up but to play until next season."

He also stressed the importance of strengthening the team's ground-strokes and volleys.

First doubles player freshman Andy Jiang felt that the team was extremely lucky to come out on top of the tie. "We thought we had lost it for sure," said Jiang.

Fourth-seeded singles player junior Jason Liu was the best Blazer at the County Tournament, advancing to the finals where he lost 6-4, 6-1 to Brian Cohen of Wootton High School. "I just want to forget about that match and think about improving," he said.

Ngbea made clear that the Blazers deserved their title. "They really do work hard," he said. "Division I is where we belong."