Saratoga News
Cover Story
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Saratoga junior Jeff Gast was a winner at No. 1 singles, but the Falcons lost 5-2 to Sacred Heart Prep last week in the CCS Division II tennis finals. Saratoga finished the year with a solid 20-1 season record.
Making a Racquet
A sensational Saratoga tennis season came to an end in the CCS Division II championship match
By Dick Sparrer
Rico Williams had a pretty strong notion before the season started that his Saratoga tennis team was going to be good this spring.
How good? "Very good," when Williams was asked to predict this year's finish.
"We're much stronger than last year," he said, even before they rolled out the nets to get the 2006 season under way in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Twenty matches into the season, the Falcons had certainly lived up to Williams' preseason prediction. Saratoga won 20 straight to win the De Anza Division championship and play their way into the Central Coast Section Division II finals.
But that's when Sacred Heart Prep stepped in. Saratoga's perfect season came to an end last week when the Falcons lost 5-2 to the Irish in the CCS finals at the Courtside Tennis Club.
Jeff Gast and Ravi Raghavan each won in singles play, but the rest of the Falcons lost in straight set decisions to leave Saratoga second in the section. The Falcons finished the year with a 20-1 season record.
Gast, a junior, set the tone early with a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 1 singles, and Raghavan backed that up with a 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 2.
But sophomore Michael Wu lost 6-0, 6-4 at No. 3 singles and junior Rohit D'Costa dropped a 6-4, 6-3 nod at No. 4.
Michael Juang and Emerson Lin fell 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 doubles, Albert Chiang and Jeff Bair lost 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 and Sameet Ramakrishma and Abhinav Dev lost 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3.
The Falcons had handed Robert Louis Stevenson its first loss of the year in the semifinals. Saratoga nailed a 6-1 win to end Stevenson's season at 10-1. Gast pulled out a 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 win at No. 1 singles and Juang and Lin teamed for a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 1 doubles.
The good news for the Falcons is that other than seniors Raghavan, Chiang and Arvind Chani, most of the Saratoga players that contributed to this 20-1 season will be back on the court again next spring.
