Park Center boys tennis concluded its regular season last week with three matches, capped off by a home duel against St. Paul Johnson on May 9, which the Pirates eventually lost 5-2.
The season has been challenging for the Pirates, who entered last week without a win team win this season. The signs of growth have been there, however, as noted by eighth grader Carter O’Rourke who netted a win at number three singles against Spring Lake Park on April 30. It was the Pirates’ first match-up victory this spring.
The meeting with Johnson on May 9 was a unique one, in that it had started on a previous week before being delayed by rain. Therefore, the majority of the pairings had played at least part of a first set already and resumed the action last week.
Park Center had played two other schools last week, opening the week with a 7-0 non-conference loss to Princeton on May 6. Two days later, the Pirates hosted Centennial on May 8, in a competitive event, with the Cougars eventually winning 6-1.
Park Center picked up one win each in their singles and doubles matchups against Johnson. Senior and number one singles player Jeremiah Somers led the way with a win, beating Denny Yang 6-3 and 6-0. Senior Nigel Dyalsing put up a good fight against Danny Kiisn eventually losing 6-4 and 6-2 but finding a considerable amount of game-wins. The same can be said for O’Rourke, who lost 7-5 and 6-2 to Moore Chang. Grant Jermstad rounded out the singles battles with several game-wins of his own, eventually losing 6-1, 7-5 to Anthony Jamon.
Park Center head coach Randall Hyser noted that Somers had impressed across recent events, getting confident wins to end his senior year with Pirates boys tennis on a high note.
“The person who impressed me the most over the last two matches was Jeremiah Somers, because he got two wins in a row, today and against Centennial,” Hyser said. “It’s great to see him get two clear wins like that and I told him today that must’ve been one of his best matches with us. That’s great for him.”
Senior Micah Allen and sophomore Michael Vang combined for a second match win for Park Center as number one doubles, beating Rau Say and Joaquin Ochocki 6-2, 6-4 in a confident display on May 9. The younger pairing of sophomore Karl Apaloo and eighth grader Rayden Vang lost 6-2, 6-0 in their doubles match, while sophomore Quancy Vue and senior Malaki James combined for a 6-4, 6-2 loss in number three doubles.
Hyser said he was happy to have the season end on a stronger note with several match wins across the last few events, a considerable battle for a team like the Pirates, who have a considerable deficit compared to most of their conference when it comes to player numbers and experience in their player pool.
“The season’s ended more positively than it started. We have so many tough schools in our conference. ... [But] these last three matches we’ve been able to pick up some match wins, today we got two,” he said. “In our game against Centennial, we won one match, but we also had two go to a tiebreaker. If we’d won those we would still lose the event 4-3, but we’re getting better. It was fun at the end of the season here, because we started to win some individual matches and were getting a few tiebreakers too.”
The team’s seniors were acknowledged after the math. The news was also given the news that long-time assistant coach Eddie Nhean was set to depart the program after an influential run at the side of Hyser for both the girls and boys tennis teams.
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