Tennis Wins Truman Tournament
The boys tennis team faced tough competition at the Truman Tournament on Saturday, April 15, and walked away with a first place finish.
Sankeerth Gandhari played to his #1 seed in the A singles tournament. Sankeerth rolled 8-0 against William Chrisman in the first round and overwhelmed Lee's Summit North opponent in the semi-final, 8-2. In the finals, Sankeerth used drop shots, effective lobs and solid groundstrokes to come away with an 8-2 victory and a first-place medal.
In A doubles, senior George Colombo and freshman Sanjeev Adma opened as a 3rd seed and defeated a solid team from Joplin High School. The Knights had more work to do in the second round but still won 8-5. In the B championships, Sankeerth and Sonjeev played the #1 seeded Grain Valley team and dominated with a 10-5 score to win first-place medals.
In B doubles, senior Aaram Salam teamed with Liam Groden to win the first round against Joplin, 8-0. In the second round, the Knights defeated a duo from Grain Valley for an 8-1 win. In the championship round, Liam and Aaram faced a tough Staley team. Using strong, well placed serves and a good return game, the Knights wrapped up their first-place medals with a dominant 8-2 win.
Shayan Ahmed played in the B singles and overcame a rough start against Lee's Summit North, 5-8 with two solid wins. In the consolation, semis Shayan squared away his service percentage and stretched out longer rallies for an 8-2 win. Shayan rolled in the consolation final for 5th place with a 6-0 victory.
Knights Win At Blue Vally High School
Knights Win At Blue Vally High School
The Barstow boys tennis team took on Kansas 6A Blue Valley High School on the road on Monday, April 17, and came away with an impressive 8-4 win.
The Knights began with an impressive dominance of doubles, winning those four courts 3-1. At #1 doubles Sankeerth Gandhari and Liam Groden played their best doubles of the year with a strong 8-5 win against two seniors who medaled in the 6A Kansas tournament in '22. At #3 doubles, Aaram Salam and Shayan Ahmed used strong, consistent serves and a strong overwhelming net game to win 8-0. And at #4 doubles, Nithin Guduputi and Chetan Thomas also served well and dominated the net for an 8-5 win.
In singles, both Sankeerth Gandhari and George Colombo played solid singles , but both lost tough matches, Sankeerth 6-8 and George in a tiebreaker 7-8 (5-7). Liam Groden locked up the Knights 4th point dominating with an 8-5 victory. Shayan Ahmed played his best tennis of the year with an 8-2 singles win for the team's 5th point and Aaram Salam won his second match of the day to push the advantage to 6-2, before Sanjeev Adma secured the all-important 7th point guaranteeing the team win with a convincing 8-0 win. For the final icing on a solid day, Chetan Thomas hung on for a 8-7 (7-5) tiebreaking win to make the final 8-4.
Tennis With Historic Victory Over Rockhurst
Tennis With Historic Victory Over Rockhurst
The boys tennis team came away with its first win ever over Rockhurst High School. The boys added Rockhurst to their schedule 17 years ago and came away Tuesday, April 18, with their first team victory, 5-4.
The afternoon began with a clean sweep of doubles by the Knights. At #1 doubles, junior Sankeerth Gandhari and sophomore Liam Groden owned the middle of the court at the net and used a solid serving day to win 8-4. At #2 doubles, senior George Colombo and freshman Sanjeev Adma used the same patterns to dominate the court, 8-0. And at #3 doubles, a clutch performance by sophomore Shayan Ahmed and junior Nithin Guduputi downed their Rockhurst doubles opponent, 9-7.
After the doubles sweep the Knights needed only two wins in the next six singles matches. George Colombo made short work of his Hawklet opponent winning 8-4 with his best singles performance of the year. With singles losses by the Knights at #'s 1,3,4 and 6, the Shayan Ahmed stepped up with his best singles play of the year and clinched this huge win with a 7-4 victory.
