On Monday, May 19, 2015, the Highland Park tennis team came to play Colonia for the last time this season. Unfortunately for Colonia, Highland Park won 5:0.

Currently, Highland Park holds an exceptionally high record – due in part to the efforts of their first singles player Maverick Lin, who hasn’t lost a match the entire season. Unfortunately for Colonia, Highland Park won 5:0, and Lin’s game against Raj Shah, Colonia’s first singles player, was also a one-sided success; ending at 6:0.

The first singles game between Shah and Lin was already predicted to be a win for Highland Park before the match even started based on the results of the last match between Shah and Lin mid May – resulting in a resounding loss for Colonia at 0-6, 0-6. For this match, Shah seemed a bit disheartened before hand, but was optimistic nevertheless, and still hoped to serve as a well-matched competitor for Lin. Lin, on the other hand, did not seem to emote at all before the start of the match, and was most likely convinced he was going to win. He was so content and unmoved by the challenge that he had even wore headphones throughout the customary introductions, and showed no emotion as he shook his opponent’s hand.

The match started, as all do, with a ten minute warm-up. During the warm-up, Lin’s confidence was strong, and he seemed to have very few problems warming up. Shah, while seeming to be less confident but still determined, also had an overall positive warm up.

Lin won the first set against Shah with a score of 6:0. Shah seemed a bit disheartened while playing, while Lin seemed at ease. Shah had started messing up his first serves, and double faulted once. Lin had messed up some serves, but for the most part was able to serve aces against Shah.

At the end of the second set, Lin had once more won the set with a score of 6:0. However, throughout the duration of this set, Shah was able to score more points against his opponent. Two of the games played between the two even ended in deuce, in which Lin needed to score two consecutive points in order to win each of the games. Despite this, Lin remained for the most part at ease throughout the duration of the matches, and Shah gained confidence upon scoring points against Lin.

Following the second set, the two shook hands, concluding the match, which was the first to finish out of all of the matches played. With this match, Lin has maintained his perfect record throughout the entire tennis season.

“Raj put up a tough fight and put all his heart into it,” said Colonia tennis player Nick Ngai, “He had good baseline rallies against Maverick.”