On March 26, The McLean Boys Tennis team took on Marshall High School in their second home game of the season. The team looked to bounce back from a loss at Yorktown a couple days before, and this was the perfect opportunity against a team that was in the regional tournament last year in Marshall.

The team dominated their singles matches, winning five out of six in glowing fashion. Even without two veteran seniors in Karan Singh and Julian Estrada, players stepped up and contributed to the singles superiority.

“I’m really proud of how our team played,” head coach Michael Shapiro said. ”Sweeping 5 of the 6 singles matches showed the true depth that we have as a team, and it was a great bounce back win after a loss earlier this week.”

In doubles, however, the team struggled, with the first and second pairings losing 10-8 and 10-3 respectfully. Even though the third doubles was not relied on as the team had already won the match in singles, the guys stepped up and won in dominant fashion to extend the final score to 6-3 in favor of McLean.

“It was scary for a second because we were down in a lot of the matches,” junior Cayden Fraser said, “but our guys stepped up and came back and were all grateful for those wins.”

The boys hope to continue rolling through the district, but their next test will surely be their hardest. They face off against Langley, their rivals and a team known as one of the top teams in the state. If the team wants to take the win against the Saxons, they have a couple key things that have to go right.

“Our next match is against Langley which will be a good midseason test to see where we are as a team,” Shapiro said. “We’ll get some rest over spring break to try to get fully healthy and I’m excited to see how we come out and compete against Langley.”