Avi Allison has been lost to graduation, and senior Tom Plunkett has traded in his racquet for a helmet and shoulder pads. These key players are both major losses to the Garfield boys’ tennis team. However, most of last year’s team remains intact as they look to continue where they left off and take down another conference championship.

The 2007 season kicked off with a bang as the Bulldogs knocked off the Roosevelt Roughriders, who are supposed to be one of the top teams in KingCo 4A this season, five matches to four.

In a match-up, six singles matches are played, followed by three doubles matches, totaling nine matches. The team that wins the most matches, or the first team to win five matches, wins. Eight players are involved in the match-up, four of them playing both singles and doubles, two playing just singles, and two playing just doubles.

The team trailed four matches to two after the six singles matches were complete, needing a win in all three doubles matches to defeat the Roughriders. Under pressure, the Bulldogs won the next two matches to even the score and 4 – 4, and then junior Neil Eddington and sophomore Wilson Platt won the last match, giving Garfield the victory in their first regular season match of the year.

“We were down and had to win all the doubles,” said Eddington, enthusiastically. “But our team came through in the clutch, and when we won the last match, everyone went crazy.”

Winning in the clutch is not foreign to the team, as they came from behind to beat Mercer Island in a preseason game earlier this year.

Eddington, along with Platt, are the captains of this year’s squad, taking over the reins held the previous year by Allison and Plunkett.

“We lead the team through practice, and share our experience with everyone else,” said Eddington. “We want to set an example.”

Only two of the starting eight on the team are upperclassmen, making the team young and deep.

“This team has lots of depth,” said Eddington. “We don’t really have any stars, but we have a lot of talent. When our top players lose a match, everyone else comes through.”

If the team wants to continue their undefeated streak from last season, then they will have to perform well on the road; their upcoming four matches are away games.

“Roosevelt was supposed to be the other top team in the conference, and we beat ‘em,” said Eddington. “I feel like we can beat anybody.”

Last year, six freshmen earned valuable varsity experience, so although the team is very young, it is also full of veterans.

Something vital to any team is how they are able to interact with each other, something Eddington believes the team is very strong at.

“Oh our team chemistry is good,” said Eddington. “We’re all pretty tight because most of us were all part of an undefeated team together, and were building on last years run. Also, a lot of us have classes together and see each other during school.”

Eddington also credits good team chemistry to the fact that most of the team learned the “Crank Dat” dance together, something that they perform on a regular basis.

For teams of all levels of all sports, a young team usually means a time of rebuilding and looking towards the future. However, this team is ready to succeed now, even though Eddington likes what he sees in the upcoming years.

“This team will continue to win in the future,” said Eddington. “Two years from now there will be six players who will have four years of varsity experience.”

Make sure to keep and eye on the Bulldog boys’ tennis team this year, as defending their King Co crown is definitely possible with the talent and depth that they have.

“With this team,” said Eddington, “The sky is the limit.”