Tech Tennis Team is Acing the Competition

After ending last season with surprise early round losses in the city playoffs, the Varsity Boys and Girls tennis teams at Brooklyn Tech are serving notice that they’re  heavy favorites to become city champions this year.

The Girls tennis team is riding an impressive four match winning streak, having gone 5-1 so far this year. Meanwhile the Boys tennis team remains undefeated after three matches, including a dominating 5-0 sweep yesterday afternoon over the Leon M. Goldstein High School for Science.

“Losing in the playoffs to Forest Hills last year was a huge surprise for us,” said Boys tennis coach Dr. Scott Anderson, who is in his 11th year of coaching of the team. “I think it motivated us a lot coming into this season.”

Both Anderson and Girls tennis coach Maryann Marrano said only one senior player graduated last year, allowing both teams to have an almost identical starting lineup. Both also touted emerging players in the freshman class.

“I’ve got a strong, young team this year,” said Marrano. “Our number two singles player (Yanqing Jiang) is only a freshman, yet she’s already winning a lot of her matches at that slot, and we have another freshman (Emily Sham) playing number one doubles for us. They’re only going to get better, so it’s very encouraging for us.”

The girls team is led by the ace singles player and team captain, sophomore Allie Jackson-Hing. who has the best record on the team so far with a 4-1 season overall. Her wins this season have been dominating performances, having bageled her opponents to 10-0 victories on three occasions.

“The biggest thing for me is improving my attitude and concentration on court,” said Jackson-Hing. “It’s easy to be positive and happy when you’re winning 10-0, but I need to learn how to stay in and fight when I’m down or it’s a close match.”

Concentration hasn’t been an issue for the Boys team, who have been ruthless in blasting their opponents off the court. Led by junior Jake Sosonkin, the team has lost just one match out of a possible 15 in their first three meets.

“The biggest thing for us is that we all know each other well now,” said Sosonkin, who is currently ranked among the top 20 junior players in the state. “Our doubles teams have a better feel for how their partners play, and our singles players have a clear plan when they go out on the court. There’s just more team cohesion.”

While Marrano said the Girls team is hoping to make it to the final four of the city playoffs for the first time ever, Sosonkin said the Boys team has even loftier ambitions.

“We want to win on every court for every match we play,” said Sosonkin. “That’s always been our goal, and we’re not going to stop until we reach the city championship this year.”