Boys’ Tennis Takes Down Choate

The varsity boys’ tennis team finished the weekend with a home victory against Choate Rosemary Hall, 4-3. The team currently stands at 3-1, with their only loss against the talented Millfield School from England.

The match started off flawlessly, with the first four points going to Phillips Exeter. At this point, with the scoreboard standing at 4-0, Exeter had already known they had grabbed the victory. Choate's final surge with the final three points could not change the final result: a Big Red victory.

For the first time this season, the team won their doubles matches. Lower Joon Kim, lower Rex Tercek, prep Cameron Gruss and prep Brian Niguidula defeated Choate in their doubles matches. Upper Moises Escobar said, "We were able to win the doubles point, winning two out of the three doubles matches, which gave us great confidence going into the singles." The teamwork was on point against Choate, an obvious improvement from their previous match against the Millfield School.

Gruss also pointed out that the teamwork and chemistry has definitely improved from previous matches. "I think all of us are learning how are partners think and play, and we made huge progress as a doubles team this past match," he said.

During the singles matches, Moises Escobar stepped up, even with an injury, and led Exeter to a victory. He finished his two matches with the scores of 6 - 1 and 6 - 0. "Moises Escobar stood out because he won his match incredibly easily, even though he was suffering from a serious injury in his stomach," upper Nick Diao said.

Gruss agreed with Diao. "I think Moises has been hurting lately with his injury, but this last match he destroyed his opponent," he said. "He was playing extremely well and definitely stood out to me."

Even with their impressive 3-1 record, the team believes that they can perform at an even higher level. "We're looking to keep up our solid singles game while still improving our doubles game.” Lower Joon Kim said, “As of now, we have nowhere to go but up. We're a very talented and deep team with very high goals and expectations."

Diao agreed. "The match was a win, but it was tight and we can definitely still improve as a team," he said. Diao added that there was one factor particularly important to their success: consistency. "If we keep practicing our consistency, we should be able to come out with better scores in future matches.”

With the team performing at such an impressive level, Diao urges fellow Exonians to come out and support boy's varsity tennis. "We have had a great start to the reason with three wins, but we could definitely use all the support we can get from the community for future matches." As Big Red tennis’ improvement continues, a tremendous season seems to be on the horizon. The athletes faced Dexter School on Wednesday, will play Northfield Mount Hermon School on Saturday, April 26th, away, and Phillips Academy Andover at home on Wednesday, April 30th.