On the windy afternoon of May 6, the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) boys tennis team, after breezing their way through league play, advanced to a higher division for California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs. The boys battled against The Buckley School (Buckley) in a high-tension match for the first round, losing a make-or-break set that tied the match up 9-9. After counting up games, the Dragons would be defeated by 2 games, 73-75.
Charlie Powers ’27 competed in line 1 singles for the Dragons, holding his ground to make a competitive effort. In Power’s first set, he suffered a 2-6 loss to the Buckley Griffins line 1 singles player. Although Powers was tested in the first set, he quickly switched his momentum to be a reliable point maker for his team and took two dominating wins in his second and third sets, 6-3 against Buckley’s line 2 and 6-0 against their line 3 player.
Competing in doubles line 1, Greg Davis ’26 and Dylan Files ’26 were the only Dragons to manage consistency throughout the match. This duo put down every doubles line from Buckey, securing 3 points for their team.
“Everyone was playing really well, and it was so close in the end, we just didn’t quite do it,” Files said, reflecting on the team effort.
Nicholas Saucedo ’28 competed as the line 2 singles, and Lucas Hellman ’29 competed in line 3. Although unable to secure any wins against Buckley’s lines 1 and 2, they would each be a fierce competitor to the Griffin’s line 3. Hellman secured a light 6-2 win while Saucedo competed in a back-and-forth tie-breaker set to eventually take a 7-6 win. In collective efforts, they earned 2 points for their team.
Zack Powers ’29 and Tommy Van Calker ’27, despite their uncommon partnership, battled their way through in line 3. They began their day off with a 6-2 against the Griffin’s line 3. The duo was then unsuccessful in obtaining any more points for their team.
“I knew we would battle, I knew we would have a chance, so to see these guys battle as they did … they gave it everything they had all the way up to the end, and I could not be more proud of every single one of them,” Mike Powers said.
Line 2 doubles, Aaditiya Atluri ’27 and Ansh Joshi ’26, lost their first set against Buckley’s line 2. Despite this, the duo would shift momentum to take a dominant 6-1 win over the Griffins’ line 1. For their third set against line 3, the match gained tension as it went into a tie-breaker, and also was the last set being played on the courts. The current score of the overall match was 9-8 at the time. After going back and forth in the tie-breaker, the duo would just barely lose 6-7 to their line 3 opponents.
“We definitely didn’t have as much team spirit as they had, but we slowly brought it on… two games could have gone either way, one point or the other, so our team fought really hard today,” Charlie Powers said.
As set scores totaled up to 9-9, the winner came down to game scores. The Dragons suffered a 2 game deficit, 73-75, eliminating them from the CIF playoffs.
