By Alan Der OHANNESSIAN

The Hoover Tornados boys’ tennis team blew past the Falcons 12-6 on Thursday, Feb. 28, dropping Crescenta Valley’s record in the early season to 1-1.

The Falcons were looking to win their second consecutive match after beating Glendale 10-8 on Feb. 26. But the Tornados were strong on the court, improving to 2-2, 1-1 in the Pacific League.

The Tornados looked eager for the win from the start, dominating the Falcons in the singles column.

“[We’re] better in singles, steady shots,” said CV Coach Sam Hyun. “We have a lot of mistakes; when we have an easy, floating ball, we don’t know how to finish it.”

Albert Chtchyan, CV’s No. 1 seed, won just three games in his first two matches against Oleg Simonyan and Emile Ohanyan, losing 6-1 and 6-2 respectively.

But Chtchyan dug deep in his match against Chris Ghadimi. He was down 3-0 before battling back to win six games in a row to get his only win of the day.

His teammates’ performances didn’t fare as well.

Aren Abrahamian, No. 2 seed, won just four games in his first two matches before defeating Ghadimi, 6-3.

While James Ho didn’t win any of his matches, his competitiveness impressed his coach.

“He’s a fighter,” said Hyun of Ho.

Overall, the Falcons managed to win only two out of the nine matches. They redeemed themselves – somewhat – in doubles competition with the Falcons’ top duo of Patrick Meserkhani and Greg Manouchehri leading the way.

They lost their first match to Danny Kim/Arthur Arutyunyan 6-1, citing an inability to get into the flow of the match, and injuries.

“We got off to a slow start,” said Manouchehri. He also referenced a rolled ankle suffered during play against Glendale that he was still nursing. But undeterred, the duo got back on track and conquered the next two teams, conceding only three games combined.

“We came back and played more aggressive,” said Meserkhani.

The second team, Allen and Jason Chang, couldn’t replicate their teammate’s success. They lost their serve once in their first match, losing 6-4 to Kim/Arutyunyan. They tried to right the ship in the second match, but felt short, losing 7-6 (7-3) in a tie-break, but they ran out of steam, losing 6-3 in their last match.

Falcons Alex Jang and Youngjun Jang picked up the slack for their teammates winning two of their three matches, losing seven games. Hyun substituted the team, putting in Jason Chang and Young Peak. But there was no magic there and they lost 6-4.

Overall, the team won four out of nine matches in doubles.

“I hope when we play Hoover next time we’re in a better position,” he said.

As for the team overall, he believes it’s a “learning process.”

“Still learning a lot of stuff,” he said. “I have to figure out either stack in singles or doubles.”

The Falcons next play Pasadena High School today at 3:30 p.m.

  ALAN DER OHANNESSIAN, tennis