“At the beginning of the season, it was looking pretty rough,” Coppell senior Vinay Patel said.

“Rough” was constituted by an expected 15-4 win against Abilene, followed by losses to Abilene Wiley (16-3) and Southlake (15-4) and the closer 12-7 against Plano West last Friday. 

Up next for Coppell is Dallas Jesuit and Ursuline Academy today at the CHS Tennis Center at 4 p.m. With its lineup finalized and competition expected to be weaker, Coppell hopes to collect its first home victory.

“[Coppell coach Rich Foster] always makes our schedule front end heavy which means he puts us against really really good competition right at the beginning of the season,” Patel said. “So when we do get into district play, matches will feel easier and we’ll already have experience against better teams. Jesuit and Ursuline are not as strong a team as we’ve played before and hopefully we’ll go out there with a lot more chemistry and look like a team more than them because they’re two separate schools.”

After the loss at Abilene Wiley, with doubles teams disjointed and several injuries, the dual match at Southlake Carroll showed improvement. Slowly piecing together the new lineup, Coppell is heading in strong with mixed doubles team senior Cason Cole and junior Lindsay Patton and boys doubles teams of senior Ishaan Dhandapani and Patel and juniors Atharva Nijasure and Sayon Nath.

At the Plano West tournament, the team came fully together, taking three matches to unexpected tiebreakers against Plano West, the top team in the state.

“We started to look more like a team,” Patel said. “If anything, for the rest of the season with our full lineup, it’s looking really promising because none of the teams we play going forward – besides Plano West – will be as difficult as the teams we’ve played.”

With lines 1-5 on the boys side and the back end of the girls singles side looking similar in Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), the objective and consistent index of each player’s skill, several matches will be close competition.

“When we play at home, our strong suit is our cheering,” Patel said. “Hopefully that will pull us out the win – it will be close but I think we can do it.”

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