Viking Tennis Finishes Season Strong

By Eswar Dhinakaran

On April 23, 2013, the Irvington Boys’ Tennis Team competed at MVALs at the Fremont Tennis Center. The team, which finished 3^rd place in the league during the regular season with a record of 9-5, sent 4 singles and 4 doubles teams to represent IHS tennis.

Sophomore singles player, Chris Fan, was seed #5 at the tournament. Honorable all-league mentions included freshman Amarinder Chahal, junior Minh Phan, doubles team Jacob Meng and Zubin Mehta and doubles team Travis Huang and Eswar Dhinakaran.

The first round of the tournament was a tough one for Irvington, as 5 of the 8 Irvington teams failed to proceed to the next round. The surviving three teams, singles player Chris Fan, doubles team Javier Chu and Minh Phan, and doubles team Travis Huang and Eswar Dhinakaran returned on the second day, April 24, for their second round. Chris Fan made it past his second round match against American High School, but lost in his third round match. Both remaining doubles teams lost in their second round matches against Logan High School.

Coach Dan Leon was optimistic despite the team’s loss and the down-trodden players, “Just learn from this experience. We had a tough draw and our performance was indicative of the hard work we put in this season. We had a great season,” the coach told his players after their losses.

Ever optimistic sophomore player, Chris Fan, maintained levity despite his losss, “Playing at MVALs was really worth it because they had really good bagels and oranges for us, and I had a chance to skip school. It sucks that nobody from Irvington won, but in our hearts, we all know that Irvington is the best.”