Captain Victor Teague shooting a strong flat serve in the game against Triton Hawks at Amerige Park. Photo by Subin Bastola.
On Tuesday, May 16th, the Malden High boys tennis team defeated the visiting Triton Hawks. Coming into the game Malden had an overall record of 1 win and 7 loss and had been on four losing streaks.
The Tornadoes started the game aggressively in first singles, as captain Victor Teague dominate Triton Hawks’ players with consistent serve and powerful return. The boys had defeated the Hawks just a week prior and were confident that they would do the same again. Throughout the rest of the first set Teague continues to play restraining defense as well as an offense as he capitalized on every opponent weak return. The closest Triton ever got was 3-3 on the second set but Teague was able to pick up his pace and never looked back. As captain Teague mentioned his “killer first serve” was clearly one of his strengths. The first singles ended with MHS win over Triton (2-6) and (4-6).
On second singles, sophomore Thomas Tran was also determined to defeat Triton. Tran’s consistent play and calm nature was understandably his strength. Even though some of the serves hit the net Tran was able to turn many of the return into good shots causing an opponent to move back and forth. Tran got off to good start by breaking opponent’s serve in the second game of the match. Tran’s beautiful crosscourt volley surprises the Triton player forcing him to miss the return. Throughout the rest of the second set Tran skills of “looking for the attack” made his defense more intense as well as his strong forehand and groundstroke make his offense robust. The second singles also ended dominating Hawks (2-6) and (2-5).
The third single was one of the entertaining matches of the day. Sophomore Luis Gilbert was also looking forward to winning the second match against the Triton. From the beginning of the game, Gilbert was in the attack. His flat serve was one of his strengths. Gilbert and his opponent had a competitive evening since they both were tenacious to get a win. Despite starting the set with the points Gilbert had a hard time maintaining the winning streak. Gilbert lost the first set (6-4) and won the second set with distant margin (6-2) leading the game to the tiebreaker. Unfortunately, tiebreaker could not go as Gilbert thought and he have to satisfy with another lost 6-4.
