Another high school boys tennis regular season is done, and for Parkland, it’s another season of game, set, match.

Coach Mike Hingston’s Trojans finished the 2019 regular season with an 11-2 record, stumbling only against Nazareth on April 10 and Emmaus on April 16, both times by 4-3 margins. As the regular season came to an end, Parkland finished strong, defeating Allentown Central Catholic 4-3 on April 11, Whitehall 5-1 on April 17 and shutting out Northampton 7-0 on April 18.

“We had a nice regular season,” Hingston said. “They definitely showed me something.”

The three singles players - number one Ankit Lenka, number two Matthew Liu and number three Dan Zolatarev - gave consistently good performances throughout the campaign. Lenka and Liu provided Parkland a potent one-two steamroller that bedeviled most opponents all season. Freshman Zolatarev proved to be a pleasant surprise for Hingston.

“He just gets better everyday,” said Hingston. “Some people just can’t believe he is a freshman.”

Zolatarev has been superb. He was the only Parkland singles player to win his match against Emmaus, handily beating Aiden Springs 6-1,6-3. The next day he defeated Whitehall’s Josh Mallory 6-1, 6-0. Still not done, 24 hours later he made Northampton’s Cameron Chuss’ day a short one in a 6-2, 6-0 win.

Another inspiring Parkland surprise has been sophomore Joshua Jaffe, who is the team’s “sixth man,” who will do “whatever is asked from him to help us win,” said Hingston.

Jaffe has been a doubles machine, going 7-0 when called on this season. He has partnered with Sanjiv Parthasarathy Henrique Ruozzi and Krishna Narramneni

“He just enjoys playing,” his coach said.

The Trojans 4-3 loss to Emmaus on April 16 was the school’s first loss to the Hornets since 2004. Hingston said his boys played well and gave credit to coach Brian Bleam’s Green Hornets and in particular sophomore Sean Jaeger, who Hingston said is probably the best player in the EPC. Jaeger is the defending district champ and top seed in this week’s district singles championship tournament.

With Jaeger playing number one singles and number one doubles, the coach noted the young star had given Emmaus two of the four points they needed to win.

The turning point of the afternoon was a classic doubles battles between Emmaus’ Grant Haffner and Kevin Gee and Parkland’s Fyodor D’Souza and Conrad Lee. The Trojans won a tight and taut first set 6-4, but lost their momentum and the match, dropping the second and third sets 6-3, 6-4, respectively.

Parkland’s District 11 singles action took place April 22 and 23 at Lehigh University and Parkland High School. District 11 team tournament competition starts April 29. Parkland will likely be the No. 3 seed with a probable first-round matchup against Southern Lehigh.

“We don’t focus on anything particularly different,” Hingston said of postseason play. Hingston said he focuses on the fundamentals and having his team mentally and physically prepared to play their best.

“The results will take care of themselves,” he said.

Throughout the season, Hingston has been pleasantly surprised at the poise his young team has shown.

“They don’t seem to succumb to the pressure,” Hingston said.

In the coming weeks, he hopes that trend continues.