The Wildcats had a successful run in the WCAL Individual Tennis Tournament, securing both the singles and doubles titles. After an impressive season in which they finished 16-3 (12-2 WCAL), they were granted the #1 seed in both the singles and doubles draw.
In the doubles draw, #1 Jacob Young and Devin Stuppin cruised in their first two matches as a team, defeating the SHC duo of Ichinose/Steinhart 6-0 6-0 and Serra’s Danielson/Urrutia 6-1 6-1. The opposite half of the draw saw Spencer Shank and Neel Noronha play some tough matches, beating Valley Christian’s Lin/Kalahasti 6-0 7-5, as well as coming back from the brink in the first set against SF’s #3 Wirjadisastra/Wang to win 7-6(5) 6-2 to advance to day 2 of the tournament. The singles draw saw #1 Spencer Leung return to his first junior tournament since USTA Nationals at Kalamazoo this past August.
After a season in which he dropped only one set, Leung cruised on Day 1 of the competition, defeating Nathan Reynolds of Serra 6-1 6-2 and Alex Simone of St. Francis 6-2 6-2.
On the other side of the draw, Alton Tse made his presence felt, defeating Riordan’s Ian Gyrb 6-0 6-0 before crashing out to #3 Anish Lolabattu 6-3 6-0. Spencer Leung showed his first signs of struggle all season, but was able to power through it to book his slot in the final. Facing Bellarmine’s Martin Dimitrov, a four-star freshman, he fought through a difficult first set before finding his rhythm in the second, taking the match 7-6(3) 6-2.
In the final, Leung expected to cruise his way through, having already badly defeated SF’s #2 Shiven Mehta during the regular season. However, this time Mehta came ready. Despite taking the first set 6-2, Leung struggled to find his rhythm, as he saw the second set slip away by a score 5-7. Locked into a 10-point battle for the crown, Leung used all of his junior tennis experience when he needed it most, saving a match before taking the exhilarating breaker 13-11, making him WCAL Champion. After a successful tournament, the boy’s tennis squad will look to ride the momentum into the CCS Playoffs, where they aim to make a deep run.
Neel Noronha '24 is a Vol. 71 Managing Editor