A recent 10-8 win over Chadwick pushed the varsity boys tennis team to a 3-2 record in the Prep League and an 8-3 record overall. Under the command of head coach Tim Pawley, the Panthers look to close out the final Prep League matchups strong before CIF playoffs.
Team tennis is composed of both singles and doubles. There are 3 singles players and 3 doubles teams on every team. Thus, tennis requires both a blend of individual talent and collaborative chemistry. For this year’s Panthers, team chemistry has been a strong suit. Senior doubles player
Senior Nathaniel Karafilis-Spensley said, “Our camaraderie is the apple of our team’s eye.” For head coach Pawley, this season has been a culmination of almost 4 years of coaching.
“The players help, coach and support each other very well and are very vocal as opposed to when I first started,” said Pawley.
Leading the charge for the Panthers are junior and Singles 1 player, Daniel Zheng, and the superb senior doubles 1 unit of Hadi Ammar and Luke Haenisch. In the team’s recent win over Chadwick, Ammar and Haenisch secured 3 points, dismantling their opponents with 6-0, 6-1, and 6-0 victories in their 3 sets. Zheng also contributed 3 points, winning 6-2, 6-1, and 6-0.
However, the Panthers’ secret sauce lies in each player’s versatility in lineups, especially senior singles player and co-captain Nathan Taing, senior doubles player Nick Beiner and Karafilis-Spensley. After losing their first match against Chadwick 8-10, coach Pawley switched up his lineups, resulting in a 10-8 victory for Poly.
“I put Nathan with Natty [Karafilis-Spensley] and that seemed to do the trick,” said coach Pawley. “What we needed was to kind of juggle the lineup a bit. Nick’s very versatile, so he can be moved from doubles to singles, and I did that. And he did his job. Nathan excelled with Natty on Chadwick’s match the other day, and I plan on doing that against Prep too.”
The large senior presence has not only provided a trove of experience but also leadership and maturity that has ultimately made the difference in matches.
“They were a very quiet team when I started about 4 years ago, but because they’ve grown together, they’re very vocal, and they’re very supportive,” said Pawley.
“It’s a nice thing to see, it’s something that you’re proud of, and I would say that would be our biggest asset.” As the Panthers pulled into the final stretch of the season before CIF playoffs, they utilized their many intangible assets during the Prep League finals on April 23 and had a successful result from the doubles team, consisting of Taing and Karafilis-Spensley. This duo had a strong performance, winning two of their three sets against Chadwick (6-2) and the Poly duo of Ammar and freshman Jack Hoecker (7-6) but losing 4-6 to Flintridge Prep to earn third place overall in League.
