Taos Tigers tennis season gets underway
The Taos Tigers boy tennis team is in a rebuilding phase. There’s only one senior (Robbie Gersten) on the team, and he plays multiple sports throughout the school year.
On Tuesday (April 2), the Tigers performed better overall as a team against the Española Sundevils than they did against the Blue Griffins — even though they couldn’t win a single match against Española.
The Sundevils have been competing against other schools since early February, as opposed to Taos, which played its first competitive match on the last day of March. Even with that head start, Gersten and Backer held one-set leads against their Española opponents in singles tennis.
Gersten won the first set 6-3 against Ian Gaytan, but after the first set, Gaytan overpowered Gersten. Whenever a ball dropped short in front of Gaytan, he would transfer his whole weight into a cannon of a backhand to win a point. Gersten did have success whenever he forced Gaytan into a defensive backhand on the run. There were many opportunities for Gersten when he would get near the net to finish the point, but instead of spiking or volleying the ball, he let it bounce, giving Gaytan time to get back into play.
One of the tennis coaches advised Gerson to follow through more on his forearm and not play too cautiously.
After that advice, he hit the ball just a tad long over the baseline, but it was the result the coach wanted. The new tactic did have the effect of forcing Gaytan to play more defense and make more mistakes. But every now and then, Gaytan would hit a ball that gave him a friendly bounce off of the net. He apologized to Gersten for winning points that way.
Gaytan’s momentum in winning the second set carried over into the third set, which he won, 6-4.
Backer won the first set 6-3 against Joaquin Salayer, and then in a similar fashion lost the second set, and then lost the third set in the same manner as Gersten, 4-6.
The Taos Tigers could not win a match in singles tennis, but they were able to win more games as a team.
On Thursday (March 31), the Santa Fe Prep Blue Griffins came close to sweeping the Taos Tigers in every flight, with the exception of the top flight match between Gersten and Teo Gilbert.
Gilbert’s aggressive serve and forearm won him the first set, but
then Gersten fought back and won the second set, 7-5. By winning the tiebreaker, he gave Taos one win for the day.
In doubles tennis, Ari Kolman and Perry Kushner of Taos lost to Jack Dolan and Alec Hardey of Santa Fe Prep, 1-6, 0-6, respectively.
Asher Maddox and Ben Curry of Taos lost to Henry Kaufman and Jackson Friedland of Santa Fe Prep, 0-6, 0-6, respectively.
Gersten and Backer of Taos lost to Gilbert and Wes Parker of Santa Fe Prep, 3-6, 2-6, respectively.
In singles tennis, Kushner lost the sixth flight match to Dolan, 0-6, 0-6.
Here were the rest of the results
from the match:
Kolman lost the fifth flight match to Shrey Poshiya, 1-6, 1-6. Curry lost the fourth flight match to Friedland, 1-6, 0-6.Maddox lost
the third flight match to Parker, 0-6, 0-6. Backer lost the second flight match to Kaufman, 0-6, 0-6.