Photo of Malachi Dharmaratne courtesy of Amanda Lin
Boys Tennis:
Thanks to Maranatha tennis for this report:
Playing their third match in three days, and after two intense, hard-fought losses, the Minutemen came into today’s match physically and mentally fatigued.
But one mantra continued to echo throughout the team, “Win this for Malachi.”
Today was Senior Day and was Dharmaratne’s final match in a Maranatha uniform.
As the lone senior in a sea of underclassmen, it took the entire season to build the camaraderie they now have; so when Senior Day arrived, his teammates’ goal was clear – send him off with the win.
The effort and focus the Minutemen exhibited today resulted in wave after wave of relentless tennis and a dominant 14-0 start.
One tight set was still being played, as Coach Arthur Hsieh started emptying his bench.
It was Dharmarate’s final set.
Down 5-3, it looked like Dharmaratne and his partner, Yohan Park, might lose, as they seemed a bit distracted, possibly by the pressure of playing in front of friends and family that came to support Dharmaratne.
Dharmaratne/Park knew that’s not how this day was supposed to end and regrouped to win the next 4 games, garnering a 7-5 win and completing a doubles sweep for the Minutemen.
Alternates, Russell Sze, Elvis Zhang, and Dien Xie were then inserted to play singles.
In the shock of the day, Sze played out of his mind against the Coyotes’ top player, shocking the entire team by prevailing, 6-1.
Maranatha’s top two players, Matt Yip and Cherif Sauma, defeated that same player, 6-4 and 6-2 respectively in hard-fought sets.
No. 1 Hayden Geeting/Nate Schumann won, 6-0, 6-1, 6-3; #2 Elbert Sun/Reggie Park won, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1; while #3 Dharmaratne/Park won 6-0, 6-0, 7-5.
For the first time all season, each team was on all cylinders at the same time.
While the Minutemen will miss the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, today’s performance was their single most collectively locked-in performance of the season.
It shows the potential they possess when they come together and focus.
If they commit to continuing to mature and grow, they will be a team to contend with next season.
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