Tennis Titleholders: Peninsula Wins Bay League
On April 25, the boys varsity tennis team beat the Palos Verdes High School (PVHS) boys varsity tennis team 9-9 (75-70) in their final match of Bay League, making Peninsula the champions. Bay League is an annual high school athletic competition in which various sports teams from the South Bay compete, including Peninsula, PVHS, Mira Costa High School (MCHS), Culver City High School (CCHS), Redondo Union High School (RUHS) and Santa Monica High School (SMHS). By the end of each season, the team that wins the most matches receives the title of Bay League Champion. In a tennis match, each team plays nine singles matches and nine doubles matches against their opponent. All singles and doubles matches are played in a one set format: the first singles player or doubles team to win six sets wins the match, and the school that wins the most matches wins the overall game. If both teams tie at nine matches each as was the case against PV, the team that won more sets throughout each of the matches wins. Junior Kyle Shigekawa and his teammate senior Cody Hashimoto played the last doubles match tiebreaker where they almost lost the match due to being set points down, but they eventually won the final points to secure the victory with 75 sets compared to PV’s 70. Shigekawa was happy to make an important contribution to the team and was shocked to win the match.
“It meant a lot to me to win the final match against PV because it helped our team win the Bay League title against our biggest rival,” Shigekawa said. “My partner and I almost lost the tiebreaker match because we were down three match points, but we played with a good strategy and fought off those match points to secure the victory.”
With their latest victory, the boys varsity tennis team has continued a winning streak over PV. The team beat PV 9-9 (80-71) in the first matchup of this season after previously beating them two times in the 2020-21 season 14-4 and 10-8. The team credits several significant moments throughout the season for helping build confidence towards beating PV for the second time. Most important was when at the start of the season on March 11 and 12, the team traveled to Stanford University to play in the Bay Area Classic and defeated two well-ranked teams, Monte Vista High School (MVHS) and Redwood High School (RHS). Because the season was ending, senior Cameron Sachar believes that the PV vs. Peninsula match was the most important one of the season and winning was a great result for the team’s future.
“The PV match is always the most competitive match of the season because they are our crosstown rivals,” Sachar said. “We have friends on the PV team who we wanted to beat so this rivalry brings the best out of the players on our team. Our win proves that we exhibited a lot of teamwork and the team has high potential for upcoming seasons.”
Winning the Bay League title sent the boys varsity team to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Open Division playoffs, which included the best eight teams in the entire state of California. On May 6, Peninsula lost to Woodbridge High School (WHS) 9-9 (66-72) in the first round. This meant the team completed the 2021-22 season with a win-loss record of 15 wins and 10 losses. Despite the following loss, senior Caleb Bringas says the final Bay League match against PV was full of excitement and encouragement from his teammates.
“I felt like our team really brought a lot of energy while supporting each other throughout every match which allowed the players to perform better,” Bringas said. The most memorable part of this match and a moment I will never forget was the ending of the tiebreaker match when we all stormed the court.”
