Viewpoint boys' tennis team wins CIF title for the third straight year

ADAM DAVIS/Acorn Newspapers THREE-PEAT-Arjun Kolachalam of Viewpoint hits a forehand during the team's postseason run to its third consecutive CIF title. It looks like the X-Men movie wasn't the only third installment that did well this past week.

Viewpoint's tennis team showed they had plenty of skills as well in its last stand, as the Patriots beat Cate last Wednesday, 11-7, to win the CIF boys' tennis championship for the third straight year.

"Every year we set a goal to defend our championship and every year I have been shaking my head in amazement," Viewpoint head coach Asif Azhar said. "So much hard work goes into this and I credit the players for never losing sight of their goal."

According to Azhar, one of the most important factors to this year's victory was the play of his doubles team. Leading the way in doubles were two seniors who have been on board for all three championship teams, Reed Lerner and Todd Snyder.

"I think we just complement each other very well," Snyder said. "Reed is 6-foot-3 and has the arm length of a condor, so he basically takes anything near the net. I take every ball hit anywhere else."

Lerner, who's one of four seniors that were a part of all three championships, remembers his freshmen season very well. That year, Viewpoint lost in the semifinals after going further in the playoffs than it had ever been.

"It was a learning experience for us, as that year gave us an idea of what our competition would be like, not just in our league, but in other leagues once we made the playoffs," Lerner said.

Lerner's postseason experience came in handy during Viewpoint's semifinal match against Palos Verdes.

"There were more people watching that match for us-probably 60-than had ever seen us play before," Snyder said.

"We were down 5-3 at one point and battled back. We won

a tiebreaker at 7-5 and that was huge for us," he said. "Basically, it was one of the most intense games of tennis I ever played."

"We had played them earlier in the year but had some people on our team out for different reasons," senior Arjun Kolachalam said. "We just knew that once we had everyone playing for us, we would be all right."

Though Kolachalam had a feeling his team would beat Palos Verdes, winning three straight championships was a goal even he didn't think was possible back when he was a sophomore.

"That's a thought that never entered my mind. I mean there was no way I could have imagined this good of an ending to my high school career back then," Kolachalam said.

Through all three championships, Azhar has preached to his team to make sure to enjoy playing the game of tennis and to not add any extra pressure of defending their titles. This seems to have worked, since many seniors cannot believe that their era with Viewpoint is over.

"I just want to play more. I tried to organize an alumni game, anything, just so we can keep playing," Snyder said. "I'm sad the season and my high school tennis career are over, but I really wish we could keep

playing for another month . . . as long as we get to keep the title, of course."

For the six seniors and the entire Viewpoint team, the competition has finally run out.