There’s not many people in the school who can tell senior twins Calvin and Colby Vuong apart, and that’s something they try to play to their advantage on the tennis court.
“Our skills kind of complement each other, because my groundstrokes are stronger than Colby’s, but he has better net game. We dress the same so that our opponents can’t play to our weaknesses, because they can’t tell who they’re serving or hitting at: Colby or me,” Calvin Vuong said.
At districts, the twins started the three-day tournament strong, and while they found Saturday’s game challenging, the twins were able to make a comeback on the final day, placing second overall. From there, they’ll have a long break from the regular season before the State tournament in May.
This success, of course, did not come easy. One of the challenges the Vuongs faced was the mental game in addition to tough opponents. It was hard for them to strategically plan each shot during the fast paced games, especially against players with playing styles that they weren’t as prepared for.
“I think we were able to figure out our weaknesses during Districts, one of them being our struggle with keeping both our mental and physical games strong. Our opponents lobbed a lot (hitting high balls that are usually returned by overheads), which we’re not used to,” Colby Vuong said. “It was hard to return them aggressively, so it’s something we plan to work on before state.”
They’re staying optimistic and ambitious as they plan for the state tournament, and hope to play their best at their final few tennis matches representing Liberty.
“I think it’s starting to hit that we’ve already played our last districts match ever,” Calvin Voung said. “And State will be the last tournament we will ever play representing Liberty, so we want to bring everything to the court to play as strong and as aggressive as we can, and finish off our senior year with no regrets at State.”