April has come and gone, which means the Aliso Niguel Boys’ Tennis season is officially over.
The boys were off to a great start to their season, beating Laguna Hills 18-0 on Feb. 20, then El Toro 13-5 on Tuesday, Feb 25. On Thursday, they lost their first game against Newport Harbor with just a score of 5-13.
Their first game of March was played on Mar. 4 against Santa Margarita, losing another game, this time ending with 15-3. A stroke of bad luck came when the weather started to rain for two weeks, but Aliso prevailed, beating the Mater Dei Monarchs 3-2 on March 5.
Shahab Touski (12) says, “This was a great match, I had a lot of fun and it was very competitive. I played well but there were definitely a few parts of my game that could have improved.”
Following this unfortunate weather came another two losses, this time against Tesoro and Dana Hills, with a score of 13-5 and 12-6, respectively. Then, on March 25, they ended their four game losing streak with a competitive win against Trabuco Hills, 10-8.
On March 27, Aliso fought an uphill battle at Beckman High School, but unfortunately took their most devastating loss of the season, losing 18-0.
Starting April, Aliso hosted San Clemente for another league match. Unfortunately, Aliso was not on their best game and lost by ten with a score of 4-14.
On April 3, Aliso hosted the Tesoro Titans, and unfortunately lost, with a score of 4-14. Coming back on April 15, Aliso had another disappointing loss to Dana Hills, losing 5-13.
For their last three games in April, the boys could not win a single game against San Juan Hills, Beckman and San Clemente. They finished with scores of 5-13, 2-16 and 4-14, respectively. After this devastating losing streak, the boys played in League Finals, with a shot at CIF.
Austin Ceiley (11) comments, “This was such an unfortunate season, we had hoped to have a decent record but I think this has been the one of the worst records we have ever had”.
League Finals were only single matches, being led by Luke Zidbeck (12)-one of the team captains-and Peter Ma (9). The other captain, Prayag Sameth (12), was unable to participate due to a final test conflicting with match times.
League finals played out decently, with many wins and losses; unfortunately, Aliso was not up to the standards to make it to CIF. This brought Aliso to the end of their season. Though it was riddled with back and forth matches, the boys prevailed through their 2024-2025 season.
