MAX EFFORT: Princeton Day School boys’ tennis player Max Wang chases down a ball last week as he competed in the Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) Tournament at the Mercer County Park Tennis Center. Freshman Wang took fourth at second singles in his debut at the event. Wang’s performance helped PDS place sixth in the team standings of the event which was won by WW/P-South. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)

By Bill Alden

Max Wang made some noise as he competed last week in his first Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) Tournament for the Princeton Day School boys’ tennis team.

Freshman Wang posted a pair of straight-set wins at second singles in the opening rounds on April 20 to roar into the semifinal round of the event which was held at the Mercer County Park Tennis Center.

On Thursday, Wang started action by falling 6-3, 6-1 to eventual champion Rohan Ramachandran of WW/P-South in a semifinal clash. Later in the day, Wang battled hard against Tacto Yamada of Princeton High in an emotional third place match, falling 11-9 in a 10-point match tiebreak after the foes had split the first two sets.

PDS head coach Michael Augsberger was proud of the way Wang battled in the event.

“Max was his always fiery self, he brought a lot of passion to the matches this whole week,” said Augsberger. “He was our best performer in the entire thing. I was really impressed with the way that he fought in the first match today. He made it difficult on him.”

Wang fought hard in the third-place match as he won the first set 6-2 before losing the second set 6-1 to Yamada and then falling in the match tiebreak.

“What I think happened is that Max was able to get under the skin of the opponent,” said Augsberger. “Tacto was struggling from the first match, he had a very vocal opponent in that match too. He was able to right the ship in the second set and Max was kind of running from side to side a lot. Once you get into a tiebreaker, it is trying to figure out how to maintain your composure better than the other guy. At that point, it can go either way.”

Wang’s performance helped PDS finish sixth in the team standings of the event with 10.5 points as WW/P-South placed first with 22.5 points.

Another PDS freshman, Aryn Jain, excelled at the CVC tourney as he won the consolation bracket at first singles.

“I am really happy with Jain,” said Augsberger. “He had a really difficult draw in the first singles. He lost the first match against someone who is in the final (Prahalad Dharma of WW/P-South, the first singles runner-up). He was able to get quite a few points for us which was good.”

The first doubles pair of Avi Saran and Ashrith Tatineni and the second doubles team of Archie Douglas and Brayden Wang also earned some points for the Panthers.

“Both doubles were really strong in the first matches,” said Augsberger. “They each won their first match.”

With the Prep and New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) tournaments on the horizon, Augsberger believes that the strong competition the Panthers faced last week will steel them for the challenges ahead.

“It is hugely important,” said Augsberger, whose team has started 5-2 in dual match action. “This is one of the best conferences in this state at the top. We are going to see quality like that in the top of the Preps and States. They need to have more matches where it could go either way and they have to dig down deep to win. That is what you find here.”