The HRV boys tennis team is coming off another Columbia River Conference title and “are looking to do the same this season,” head coach Jon Hiatt explained.
With last year’s entire CRC title roster back this season, Hiatt and the boys have all the reasons to believe that not only a conference title is achievable once again, but success beyond the district meet is on the way.
Seniors Sawyer Bogard, Adam Harter, Simon Harsanyi, Luke Harter, Arnulfo Perez and Reece Carroll are coming off a junior year in which they all qualified for the state tournament.
Outside of this year’s seniors, who are returners from last season, are juniors Carson Schutt, Chris Riviello and Jay Fiedler, and sophomores John Hunter and Ben Fick that will see time at the varsity level.
With 11 returners to this year’s roster, Hiatt will also add 12 newcomers, including 10 freshmen.
Matthew Reardon, one of the 10, “looks to crack a top varsity spot this year and it's exciting to have Austrian exchange student Stefan Salmer come out for tennis this season,” said Hiatt. “I'm really impressed with the coachability and improvement that I've seen from all of the players so far.”
Looking ahead to conference play, Hiatt feels that their toughest competition this season for the CRC championship is between The Dalles and Hermiston.
“Hermiston always brings an athletic group of players to the court and The Dalles returns many of their top players from a tough group last season,” said Hiatt.
And beyond the district tournament, Hiatt spoke about the state tournament and how tough it is to make it to that stage.
“To qualify for state, our league joins the three Bend area schools to form District 1. That makes it tough to get to state with the likes of Summit in the way,” said Hiatt.
Summit won their seventh state championship last season and return many of their top players from a season ago.
“Our goal is to compete with the top teams and get a couple of players to state this season,” said Hiatt. “A top-three team finish in districts would be an amazing finish to our season!”
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