Maassen Reunited With Coach, And Winning

’s boys tennis team scheduled tough non-league opponents in hopes the high-level competition would get the players ready for critical moments later in the season.

Like the one Alec Maassen found himself in when the Giants dueled Tam last month in a battle for first place.

Maassen and Tam’s Ben Taska had split the first two sets, prompting the Marin County Athletic League’s super-tiebreaker — a first-one-to-10 fight to the finish.

“I was super-nervous,” Maassen said of a match that Redwood coach Paul Markowitz labeled a tone-setter in the Giants’ 6-3 team win.

Maassen had a match point at 9-8, but Taska had the serve.

Taska belted one to the Redwood senior’s backhand, and Maassen smacked it back. The shot hit the top of the net and bounced over, an unreturnable ball that ended the match in the Giants’ favor.

“It was really a lucky shot,” Maassen admitted. “I was so relieved.”

The Giants rode the momentum of that exciting win to the team victory, clinching the match by winning five of the six singles contests. Jonathan Pike, Parker Silverman, Peter Wentz and Dylan Basdeo also recorded singles wins in the match that likely will determine the MCAL’s regular-season champ.

But that's not the end of it. The rivals probably will square off again in the MCAL Playoffs later this month.

“The Tam-Redwood rivalry dates back years and years. I experienced it as a player. Now I’m on the coaching end of it,” said Markowitz, who graduated from Redwood in 2006. “If we are to win the MCAL, we’ll probably to have to go through them one more time.”

Markowitz can only hope for similar performances from players like Maassen, the No. 4 player on the Redwood ladder.

“My guys really showed up that day. They played about as well as they could,” the coach gushed.

“Alec really stepped up that day. He played amazing well. He’s probably been my most solid competitor all year in terms of big victories. That was definitely a match that could have gone either way.

“My guy getting that victory, coming off the court all smiles, really gave our team the confidence it was going to be our day.”

When Markowitz calls Maassen “my guy,” he really means it. The team captain, who has an 8-1 record this season, was the first player Markowitz ever coached, eight years ago at the Mt. Tam Racquet Club.

They were reunited this year when Markowitz became the Redwood coach.

“I was kinda bummed that our coaches from last year left,” Maassen, a Corte Madera resident, admitted. “I was not too optimistic how this year was going to go. When I heard Paul was going to be the coach, I was relieved. I just knew it was going to be a fun year.

“This is my fourth year on the team. It’s definitely the most exciting one yet.”

That goes for the match against Tam as well and the Maassen-Taska battle in general.

“It was a really, really good match — nerve-racking for both of us,” said Maassen, who will attend UCLA in the Fall. “I had butterflies in my stomach, because the whole season is based around beating Tam.”

It appears he’ll get one more chance to experience the feeling.

REDWOOD TENNIS UPDATE

Recent results: Beat Tam, 6-3; beat Justin-Siena, 7-2; beat Marin Catholic, 6-3; beat Lincoln (San Francisco), 6-3.

Record: 11-0 in MCAL, 17-5 overall.

Highlights: In the win over Tam, Jonathan Pike beat Zak Bohegian, 6-2, 6-3; Parker Silverman  beat Sam Wexman, 6-2, 6-2; Alec Maassen beat Ben Taska, 6-4, 3-6, 10-8; Peter Wentz beat Oliver Ramin, 6-1, 7-5; Dylan Basdeo beat Kyle Wong, 4-6, 6-1, 10-1; Lucas Wong-Ryan Cox beat Noah Jaffe-Henrick Neuwirth, 6-7, 6-4, 10-8.

Coach Paul Markowitz’s comments: “I knew I was getting a strong team. In terms of personalities, I didn’t know what I was getting. It’s a great group of guys. They’re really committed to improving their games. And also to having fun, which I think is a very important thing. They’re rooting for each other.”

Upcoming schedule: Monday at De La Salle (Concord), 3 p.m.; Wednesday at home vs. Casa Grande (Petaluma), 4 p.m.; Thursday at Novato, 4 p.m.