It’s springtime and that means it’s the season for soccer, softball and track. Oh, and tennis too. I almost forgot about that sport. Remember? The sport where two people hit balls at each other. Many people fail to realize that Ames High has the best tennis team in the state. “Ames High tennis deserves a lot more attention!” senior and varsity tennis player Calvin Song said.
Due to the schedule of the tennis season, many people were not informed about the state tournament. Last year, individual state was on the day after the last day of school. Team state occurred a week after school ended. Ames High tennis made school history last year. The boy’s team was able to send six players to individual state. The most amount of players a school is able to send to individual state is six. Other schools typically send one or two. Even more impressive is the fact that all six players managed to medal. A week later, they won team state thanks to a miraculous comeback. Down two to four after losing four of six singles matches, the Ames High tennis team rallied to win all three doubles matches to fixate themselves in Ames High history.
“Hitting an ace on match point to win team state was probably the most exciting thing I have ever experienced,” junior and varsity player Tommy Pitcher said.
This season, the Ames High Boys tennis team is returning five of their top six varsity lineup from last season. Freshman Andrew Ellis joins the top six varsity lineup this year to replace Nirvan Tyagi. Like last season, the main competition for the team is the Iowa City West team.
“We definitely didn’t have to lose four of those six singles matches. We could have easily won at #3 and #4 singles,” Tyagi said.
The varsity lineup this year feels pretty confident that they can win again this year.
“We have been working extremely hard year long,” Pitcher said. “We know that we have some tough competition but I believe that we can do it.”
To this point, the Ames High boys tennis team is undefeated in six dual meets against Des Moines North, Waukee, Urbandale, Ankeny, Valley, and Marshalltown.