Last year, Liberty switched to being a 2A school which helped the boys tennis team with their performance.
Their success can be seen as they play other 2A schools, such as Sammamish. On Tuesday September 23, the varsity team beat Sammamish High School 7-0.
“It really does help to be in 2A,” senior and Captain Marek Pierepiekarz said. “Our Sammamish match was the first match that we’ve won this season, but we swept them. They’re a 2A school, so this is how we’re performing right now against 2A schools.”
Although Liberty has become a 2A school, the team is still playing against 3A and 4A schools.
“If we’ve been playing against 3A and 4A, when we now turn to the post season playing against 2A schools, we’re going to be in pretty great shape,” Coach Mike Salokas said. “We’ll have seen tough competition, so I think that will really prepare us for post season.”
Last year, during the post season, Pierepiekarz and graduated senior Matthew Cao reach second in state in doubles.
Now that Cao is gone, Pierepiekarz is left to face the pressure of going to state again alone.
“This year, if I’m going to state, I’m going to look to do that in singles. At least that’s the plan right now,” Pierepiekarz said.
With Liberty being a 2A school, more players qualified for state and districts last year and the coach hopes to see the same result this year.
“We have a really eclectic group of guys, and it’s a lot of fun being around all of them,” Salokas said. “And they seem to be tennis focused which makes it even better.”
The post season is coming up just around the corner, and Salokas is looking for a great finish to this season.