Mallard Creek boys’ tennis clinches 1st playoff berth

Finishing in second place would be a letdown for many teams.

Not the Mallard Creek High boys’ tennis team, which set that goal prior to the 2015 season.

The Mavericks’ runner-up finish to Hough in the MECKA standings completed a milestone season: It was the best finish in program history and marked the first time since the school opened in 2007 that Mallard Creek qualified for the state dual-team tournament.

Entering their first-round playoff match with Myers Park on April 28 (an 8-1 loss), the Mavericks were 8-2 overall. The conference loss to Hough on March 25 was Mallard Creek’s only loss in MECKA 8 play.

“This by far has been the best season for me,” said Evan Long, the team’s No. 2 singles player. “It’s really fun winning. We haven’t had that much in the past. That’s definitely the best thing, that we’re winning together.”

Long is one of the Mavericks’ three seniors who pledged to leave the program in better shape than they found it, the others being No. 4 seed Daniel Rodgers and No. 6 seed Brandon Pham.

Long, Rodgers and Pham started with the program in the same year coach Joe Miller arrived. In the past three years, the Mavericks have finished in the lower half of the conference standings.

“At the beginning of the season, we knew we had a shot to make playoffs,” said Miller. “After Hough, we have evenly matched teams (in the conference) in Hopewell, North Mecklenburg, and Robinson. Any of them probably could have gotten the second spot. We had pretty close matches with all of them.”

Last year, Mallard Creek finished 4-6 overall, 3-4 in the conference.

Most of this year’s lineup returned from last year, but there is one noticeable difference: freshman Suraj Pendyala emerged as the team’s top singles player. He’s won half of his singles matches with his consistent play.

Most importantly, Pendyala’s hold of the No. 1 spot has allowed teammates to settle into positions at which they are more adept.

Pham held the top spot last season, a year after rising from the sixth seed. This year, he dropped back to the sixth spot. With nine victories in 10 matches, he has the Mavericks’ best overall record.

The rest of Mallard Creek’s lineup had a winning record in the regular season. Junior Cristian James, a third-year player who played No. 3 last year, was 7-3 at No. 5. Rodgers was 5-4 at the fourth seed; he was named Mallard Creek’s male student-athlete of the month for March.

Ahead of Rodgers is junior Nikhil Arora, who has a lot of natural talent. But recording a 6-3 mark was a surprise since he is playing his first season of high school tennis.

Long, who is 6-foot-5 and has a big serve, is the team’s vocal leader. He posted an 8-1 record at No. 2 singles.

The Mavericks also are strong in doubles.

The team of Arora and Long were 8-1 and qualified for the regional tournament. Junior Gus Hernandez and freshman Hunter Comstock, who are not in the top six in singles, emerged as Mallard Creek’s third doubles team and went 3-0 to close the season.

“The people who are not starting on this year’s team are especially good,” said Rodgers. “We have a deep roster, so it’s going to get even better next year.”

The team started the season with a confidence-building 5-4 win against Butler. The next key win was a 6-3 victory against Hopewell in the Mavericks’ conference opener.

Mallard Creek claimed easy 9-0 victories against Vance, A.L. Brown and West Charlotte, but it was the close triumphs against other upper-tier teams in the MECKA that helped the team to its second-place conference finish.

The Mavericks beat Robinson 5-4 on April 14 and defeated North Meck 6-3 in the regular season’s final match April 16.

Three of Mallard Creek’s singles victories against Robinson were decided in third-set tiebreakers. Long’s third-set victory in singles and his win at No. 2 doubles with Arora were key to the team score.

“We set a standard for the following years to come,” said Pham. “The next teams just have to top us now. We’ve given them a challenge.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 1:11 PM with the headline "Mallard Creek boys’ tennis clinches 1st playoff berth."