It's a much different year for Scarsdale's high school tennis team this spring. Every match was a challenge for the Raiders last year. Every league match was heavily contested and the talent and depth that Scarsdale possessed was matched throughout most of the teams the Raiders played against.
That's not the case this year. With the realignment of the leagues and the elimination of the power conference, Scarsdale finds itself in unfamiliar territory.
Sure, the Raiders were always one of the better teams in Section 1 tennis, but this year, after defeating Mamaroneck yesterday, 6-1, the Raiders improved to 9-1 on the season. Scarsdale is undefeated in league play and its only loss is to out-of-league opponent and former power-conference competitor Horace Greeley.
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"We've had much less competition this year," sophomore Ben Fife said.
"Our matches haven't been that close this year," Senior Preston Poon said. "We played some out-of-conference games, which have been close, but inside our league it hasn't been much of a challenge."
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In yesterday's match, Fife played alongside senior Andrew Gorobetz as the duo won its match 6-4, 6-2. Even though the Scarsdale pair won its match in straight sets, Mamaroneck started out by winning the first three games of the first set, but once Fife and Gorobetz steadied themselves, Mamaroneck was only able to win three more games the rest of the match.
"When we were warming up I thought we were going to win from the start," Fife said. "Even though we were down three games we never really thought we were going to lose."
Scarsdale isn't too concerned about the lack of competition, considering most of its players compete in national tennis tournaments around the country.
"We've competed against some of the better teams around and we beat two of those three teams," said Poon who won his singles match 6-1, 6-0. "Our guys know how to step up when they need to."
Even though Scarsdale is competing against teams that may not have its plethora of talent or depth, the Raiders still know they can't take these matches for granted.
"It takes a lot of focus in order for everyone to win their match and do their job," Poon said. "There may be less pressure on these matches because we don't need to play as well as in the sectional tournament, but they're still important for us to improve our game."
