Boys tennis tarnishes undefeated record with loss against Arcadia

Tess Whittet

Staff Writer

Mira Costa’s boys tennis team was unable to keep its seven-game winning streak alive Wednesday, losing to inland powerhouse Arcadia High School, 10-8.

Costa received top performances from singles player junior Evan Fortier and doubles pair composed of freshman Tim Dzhurinskiy and junior Shant Samuelian.

“It’s hard to say what we could have done differently against such a good team in the tough windy conditions,” Fortier said.

Fortier carried the team, winning all three of his matches in the individuals division. He won his first match, 6-2; his second, 6-2; and his third, 6-4. These victories made up the entirety of the Mustangs’ individual score.

“My opponents were super good at running down everything,” Fortier said. “It was also so windy that he [the opponent] was getting things over my head, and the ball was flying around, so I had to get it back.”

Senior Tommy Kendall and sophomore Matthew Poh lost all three of their individual matches, making the overall individual score 6-3 in favor of Arcadia.

“I think all of the players are fighting and working really hard, and I’m just not sure why my shots weren’t going in today,” Kendall said. “I’m really impressed with everyone else’s individual effort.”

The number-one seeded doubles pair, composed of Alex Fry and Kyle Sillman, contributed two victories to the overall total. The duo lost its first match, 1-6, but won its second, 6-2, and won its third, 6-3. Dzhurinskiy and Samuelian also contributed two victories, losing their first match, 6-4, and winning their second, 7-6, and their third, 6-3.

“I think that we hung in there really well, and we fought for every point and every game and set,” Dzhurinskiy said. “I thought we did that really well, and we just supported each other.”

Costa fell two games short of the Apaches’ total, with a final score of 10-8.

“We worked well as a team, but our consistency could be improved,” Fry said.

Costa, 7-1, played Palos Verdes yesterday, but results were unavailable at the time of publication. The Mustangs will play at Inglewood at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

“We need to stay more consistent on our grounds and not double faulting our serves,” junior Ben Choromanski said.