On April 17, 2025, the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) boys tennis team played against Bishop Diego High School (Bishop Diego) on the Dragons’ home court, Ventura College (VC). Foothill Tech successfully won the day with a dominant score of 14-4 after 11 players battled it out to seize this well-earned victory.
Shortly after 3 p.m., the Foothill Tech and Bishop Diego players faced off while Shaurya Shyam ‘25 announced the lines for the day’s match. In singles, Charlie Powers ‘27, Dylan Files ‘26 and Tyler Swenson ‘26 represented lines one, two and three, while, in doubles, Ansh Joshi ‘26 and Kiran Maserang ‘25, Nicholas Saucedo ‘28 and Aaditya Aturi ‘27 and Mahir Shyam ‘25 and Emiliano Ferro ‘25 played lines one, two and three. During set three, Joshi would be subbed out for Shaurya Shyam and Files would be subbed out for Tommy Van Calker ‘27.
Starting strong out of the gate was Powers, who opened his games with speed and powerful serves, being the first to defeat all three of his opponents and taking away three perfect 6-0 sets. Throughout these sets, Powers kept on the offense, saying, “the hardest matches to win [are] when you feel like you should win, and you feel the pressure of winning, when it’s not going your way.”
In doubles, Joshi and Maserang opened with a shaky start but came back with solid play to win set one, 6-2. The pair kept it up for a repeat 6-2 score for set two but after Joshi was subbed out for Shaurya Shyam, the games became much tighter with the pair prevailing in nail-biting fashion, 7-6 to secure three points for the Dragons.
Similarly, Files opened with power and energetic play, allowing him to win contested but dominant scores of 6-2 for both of his sets. After being subbed out for Van Calker, who narrowly lost his set 4-6, Files called his sets “good practice,” later adding, “[Gregory Davis ‘26 and I are] playing against Cate’s line one [in Finals]. If I could improve on [my serve] then that’ll help us.”
Line two of doubles saw Saucedo and Aturi triumph with a commanding 6-0 sweep. In their next game, against stiffer competition, the team left with a 6-4 win, but came back to 6-0 in their last set.
Finally, representing line three, Swenson would open with a back-and-forth 6-4 and a definitive 6-1 for his first two sets. Swenson would call these games “pretty good, [though] they hit it pretty weak, so it makes it harder.” After this ,he would narrowly lose 6-7 in his last set. Also in line three and rounding out doubles, Ferro and Mahir Shyam won their first games much like Swenson with a solidly fought 6-4. Their next games would end in well-fought losses of 3-6 and 1-6, respectively.
Reflecting on the game, Powers stated, “This is a good match to get some practice in … [Through] a lot of match plays … we’re just gonna keep progressing through [and] getting better so that, for CIF, we have a better, stronger team.”
While Foothill Tech celebrates this victory and sets their eyes on the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) postseason, they must first ready themselves for their senior night at home against the Dunn School (Dunn) on April 18, 2025.
