Hurley Qi ’22

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Amidst the COVID Pandemic, the Strake Jesuit varsity tennis team victoriously completed its fall season and began its preparations for the spring. 

Because of the pandemic, the Strake Jesuit tennis team took extra precautions for its players to return to the courts safely. The team sanitized the entire SJ courts and assigned each player two tennis balls to hit in order to prevent transmission of the virus. 

On September 25th, laden with freshman talent from Faysal Alameddine ’24, Owen Leung ’24, Rowan Matorin ’24, Diego Sarmiento ’24, the tennis team began its fall campaign by playing a dual match against Alief Hastings and a dual match against Katy Tompkins, one of the best teams in the state. In the match against Hastings, the players played brilliantly and scored a major victory with 24 wins and 3 losses. In the match against Katy Tompkins, the players fought valiantly in their close matches but cracked under pressure at crucial points. Only Rowan Matorin’ 24 was able to defeat his opponent and score a solo win for the Jesuit team. 

The team quickly learned from their loss and scored many major victories. The results from individual matches can be found on the Strake Jesuit website. The only other loss the tennis team suffered in the fall season was to Memorial High School. 

On October 20th, the tennis team marked the end of their successful fall season with an astounding victory. The team won all doubles and single matches, defeating Alief Elsik 26-0 to finish the fall season with a 7-2 record.

“I really enjoyed the fall season,” newcomer Diego Sarmiento ’24 said, “especially because the team was very welcoming and was a great environment.”