The sunny California skies gleam over the Bonita Vista High (BVH) Barons and San Marcos High (SMH) Fighting Knights on April 18, at the SMH tennis courts.The Barons and the Fighting Knights were ready to duel to progress in the Division I California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) boys’ tennis championship. As a result of their regular season records, BVH was seeded 12 and the SMH was seeded 4.

Although BVH was seeded much lower than SMH, many members of the team were still confident in beating them. The Barons were anything but intimidated by SMH’s high seed and vast campus when arriving. 

“I definitely believe that we will win. We have a very good team, very good players and we’ve had a good season,” junior and doubles tennis player Sebastian Higuera said. 

The matches maintained high-intensity by players from both schools. Senior tennis captains  Miles Tobitt and Sam Evans, who are also doubles partners, lost their first match of the day by a score of 1-6. However,  Tobitt and Evans enjoyed  playing and talking with their opponents. 

“When I saw the campus, the stereotype immediately came to my mind that the players would be pretentious and annoying. But the guys that we played with were nice and I enjoyed playing them,” Tobitt said.

Even though they were friendly in conversation, the Barons were competitive in their game play. Four of the games that they played ended in deuces—both pairs scored three points and the game extended until one of the teams won two points in a row. In order to achieve those deuces, Tobitt and Evans depended on one another to play as well as they could. The pair’s communication on the court proved tough for SMH to counter.

“I would say we have a good friendship. We met freshman year in tennis and I think that in some ways we can work better as a doubles team, but we have a pretty good connection” Tobitt said. 

The two’s connection was especially highlighted when Tobitt—playing alongside Evans—hit the ball with a smashing jumpshot, forcing both of SMH’s players closer to the net to volley the ball back to BVH. It was amidst the volley that Evans struck the ball and “thread the needle,” sending a neon green blur flying in between SMH’s players. The ball tapped SMH’s side’s unguarded ground before colliding with the fence behind them, rewarding BVH with a win for that rally—sequence of shots that lead to a point. 

“I have confidence in [Evans]. We have communication, when I take a short shot he’ll move back and vice versa. We know each other’s playstyle so, if I see him coming up, he doesn’t have to tell me to go back,” Tobitt said. 

Unfortunately, BVH lost more matches, resulting in a final score of 7-11 and a loss to SMH. Though the CIF loss was tough, the spirits of BVH’s players never fell.

“This was realistically my goal, to make it to CIF and to have a good performance. Individual CIF starts in two weeks and hopefully I can qualify,” senior and singles tennis player Eduardo Hurtado said