On March 5, the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) boys tennis team triumphed over Laguna Blanca School (Laguna), in the team’s first league match of the season at the Ventura High School tennis courts. The Dragons ultimately bested Laguna with a final score of 13-5.
For singles, Nick Saucedo ‘28 and Charlie Powers ‘27 had trouble against their first opponent; however, both were able to find their footing in their next two matches, where they secured wins in each of their respective sets.
Zack Powers ‘29 won all three of his sets for the second line of singles. In his first set, he put his grit and willpower on display. After being down 0-5, Powers came all the way back up to win 7-6 on a tiebreaker set.
“I just wasn’t playing my game, and I kind of turned it on, and he just stopped. So I just kept hitting, and it worked,” said Powers.
Dylan Files ‘26 and Greg Davis ‘26, who were later subbed out for Gordon Xue ‘29 in the third and final set, secured three nearly flawless victories, which included two 6-0 sweeps.
Files spoke on his strategy and the energy needed to win his sets.
“All we have to do is be on the net. My doubles partner and I both just need to get to the net, and if we get there before they do, we’ll be able to close up the point. And if we’re getting too tired, then we just need to kind of switch up our game and play in a way that we don’t need to move as much,” Files said.
For line two of doubles, Ansh Joshi ‘26 and Aadi Atluri ‘27 secured all three points for Foothill Tech even after facing some adversity in their first set.
“Overall, we need to try not to get too cocky if we’re pretty far up or if we’re noticeably better. The first game, we were up 5-0, and we were about to get done with it and take it. Then they got four games on us just because we got in our heads and got too cocky. We ended up winning that game,” Joshi said.
Tommy Van Calker ‘27 and Noah Cho ‘28, despite the two opportunities to win hard-fought sets with scores of 5-7 and 4-6, were ultimately bested by Laguna.
With the win, Foothill Tech improved its record to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in league play. The Dragons look to further their stay in the win column on March 10, where they face off against Dunn High School on their home courts.
