Game, set, match! Tennis season has come and gone again, and MMS’s boys have finished the season with a strong score of 6-3. Playing against numerous schools around the Cleveland area, Mayfield’s tennis players have improved tremendously from playing against all kinds of players. It has been yet another successful season of boy’s tennis, and Mayfield could not be more proud of the fight and the effort they have put up.

Practices started in late March, and the season ended in early May. The team held a couple of practices before they started playing matches. During the first part of these practices, the ladder was determined. Each player played a 5-game match against each other, and the number of games each player won was summed up. The player with the most games won became first singles, the second most became second singles, and so on. This year, however, Alvin Cai, Andrew Corsten, and Colin Powers tied for the third most games won, so they were in a rotation of playing third singles and first doubles. The first seven players are placed onto the team in the order as follows: first singles, second singles, third singles, first doubles, and second doubles. The top seven players consistently played at every match. The remaining players are placed on one of the two exhibition teams-green or white. The green and white teams alternate matches. This year, there are 19 boys on the team, coming from both seventh and eighth grade. Coach Newsome says, “I like to be able to help players get better with their skills. I hope that being on a team will motivate them to play for the rest of their lives.”

The full ladder for the 2017 boys tennis season is pasted below:

1st Singles: Johnny Gaudio

2nd Singles: Michael Chen

3rd Singles and 1st Doubles: Rotation between Alvin Cai, Andrew Korsten, and Colin Powers

2nd Doubles: Nick Zanella and Paul Zito

Exhibition Matchups:

Green Team:                       White Team:

Vince Ruggieri                    Landon Polack

Max Rollins                         Ani Sriram

Riley Schroeder                  Joe Kusmer

Alex Taratunin                   John Chriss

Justin Stafford                    Dylan Stafford

Robert Kramer                    Zach Kerkof

The team has played numerous matches against schools around the Cleveland area such as Shaker, Perry, Eastlake, and Wickliffe. Many of the boys reported Shaker as the toughest competitor. Matches usually last about an hour, and is either played as a set (first person who wins six games wins the match) or an eight game pro-set (a set but instead of six games it’s eight). Of all the schools Mayfield has played against, they have won against 6 of them, and lost against 3. And because this is Cleveland, many of them were rained out.

Tennis, as all sports are, requires special skill, patience, and lots of practice. Third singles and first doubles player Alvin Cai says, “The competition is extremely competitive and you have to keep up.” However, first singles player Johnny Gaudio says, “The best part about playing tennis is beating people.” Advice from these talented tennis players include, “stay strong and never give up” and “don’t doubt yourself when you’re playing”.

Coach Newsome, Coach Wojciechowicz, and all of Mayfield’s boys tennis players have made Mayfield proud with another successful boys tennis season. Go Wildcats!