Thomas Jefferson and Auburn Riverside high schools have a chance to split the NPSL League title after the Raiders took down Riverside 3-2 on Oct. 9 at Auburn Riverside.
It took everything the Raiders had to beat the Ravens, who haven’t lost a league match all season.
Even with the loss, the Ravens still can split a league title. For freshman Jeremy Yang, that is still something to be excited about.
“It’s very exciting as a team. For myself it will be a great accomplishment too,” he said.
In their previous match on Sept. 19, the Ravens swept the TJHS Raiders in all five matches. But that score didn’t signify how close the teams were at that point in the season.
This time around, the teams played loads of quality tennis. Aside from third doubles, Thomas Jefferson won a set in every match. Lucas Vlaysk was the winning match for the Raiders and he didn’t even know: “It feels really good. I didn’t know, I thought everyone else had won … Overall it felt good,” said Vlasyk.
The first match to conclude was the second doubles of Nick Heine and Jonah Tester. The two lost the first set 6-2 and the second by an identical score.
Number one doubles ended next going the way of the Raiders as well. Luke Bateman and Giuseppe Battista fell in straight sets. The opening set was won 6-3, and set two, the Ravens’ side got one more game and lost 6-4.
Freshman Jason Pham made an improbable comeback in the first set of his first singles match, coming back to win it 6-4 after trailing four games to one. He had the difficulty of facing Jeremy Yang, an uber-talented freshman who has not lost an individual match all season.
Yang took set two 6-1 and then the two freshmen went toe-to-toe in the deciding 10-point tie breaker. The final score was 10-8 with Yang coming out on top
“I’m not really comfortable. But it’s just something you have to endure, I just keep thinking, and that’s how I get through it,” Yang said.
In third doubles, the Ravens’ Caleb Choi and Allen Nguyen handled their business and made quick work of the Raiders. The two won the first set 6-3 and the second set 6-0.
The deciding match was another freshman from Thomas Jefferson, Lucas Vlasyk. The young singles player joined the Raiders squad later in the season and hasn’t played much tennis outside practice with his dad.
“It just proves that I have determination and I want it. My main sport is soccer, not tennis. But my dad has been my coach. I haven’t really taken any lessons. But now I want to start taking tennis seriously because I see have potential,” he said.
At the end of the match, all eyes were on the freshman as he took on Disel Keighron in a tightly contested match. Vlaysk won the first set 6-4 and then the second set went to a tiebreaker. Keighron was playing tough and won multiple games with his back against the wall. The second set score was 7-6 and Vlaysk won the tiebreaker 7-4.
“It was a struggle (at times). I locked in and got the win,” Vlaysk said.
With the Raiders only having one senior, the young core could compete for many league titles. But getting a chance at the first one is exciting: “It feels very, very good,” Vlasyk said.
Jason Pham, Lucas Vlaysk and Jeremy Yang will play a ton of competitive tennis against each other in the coming years. For Yang’s undefeated season, he wants to make a run at the state tournament: “I’m going to try even harder and keep enduring.”
