Fountain Valley boys’ tennis stays undefeated after beating Beckman

Fountain Valley High freshman Alan Ton has a Universal Tennis Rating of 10.43, which is extremely high for a ninth-grader.

Ton is a dedicated United States Tennis Assn. tournament player on the weekends, but when he’s at the Barons’ tennis courts, he fits in well as just another guy on the team.

“He’s here at the practices when he’s not playing tournaments,” Fountain Valley coach Harshul Patel said. “He’s at the practice on Saturday mornings. This is a team, you know? To have somebody like Alan, and he’s there at the practice, it makes a big difference.”

Ton is undefeated in the early season, with a 12-0 record in singles. The Barons as a team are also on fire early on.

Fountain Valley beat Beckman 11-7 in a nonleague match at home on Thursday, improving to 4-0.

Ton easily swept his sets, 6-1, 6-0, 6-0. Junior Ben Nguyen won two singles sets for the Barons, and each of Fountain Valley’s doubles teams also won twice.

“A lot of energy from the team makes it really fun,” Ton said. “I play really well in team environments like this.”

Fountain Valley singles player Ben Nguyen hits a backhand drop shot in a nonleague match against Beckman on Thursday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The No. 1 doubles team of juniors Kai Rodriguez and Nathan Dang appeared to be on its way to a sweep before losing 6-4 to Beckman’s No. 2 team of Kyle Chung and Kaleb Song in the third round. It was the first loss of the season for Rodriguez and Dang, and Patel could understand it as Fountain Valley had already clinched the victory.

This was also Fountain Valley’s third win in three days, after Tuesday’s 13-5 nonleague win at Foothill and Wednesday’s 17-1 Sunset Conference crossover match win at rival Edison.

“I think they’re probably feeling fatigue and mental strain,” said Patel, who’s in his 10th year in charge. “They have a lot of AP tests coming up ... everybody here is 4.0-plus [in grade-point average]. These are kids who are not just awesome tennis players, but amazing students. They’re going to be a bunch of doctors and lawyers, so hopefully my future will be good with that and I’ll get a good dividend back someday.”

The No. 2 doubles team of senior Malik Thiaw and junior Albert Ly, as well as the No. 3 doubles team of sophomores Jared Nguyen and Ninh Nguyen (no relation), also won twice. The Barons took a 4-2 lead after the first round and an 8-4 lead after two rounds.

They won despite missing senior singles player Ryan Trinh, who Patel said was out due to sickness. In the process, they dealt Beckman (3-2) its second loss of the week to a Surf League team. The Patriots lost 9-9 (78-75 on games) at Corona del Mar on Tuesday.

Patel has high hopes for the Barons this year in CIF Southern Section Division 1. He said there’s a good chance Fountain Valley will be selected as one of the top eight teams, which means a chance to compete in the Open Division.

“We’ve got to keep them healthy, keep them fit, keep them fresh,” he said.

Fountain Valley returns to action Wednesday with a nonleague home match against Placentia Valencia.

Fountain Valley’s Malik Thiaw, right, catches up to a volley as doubles partner Albert Ly watches in a nonleague match against Beckman on Thursday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

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