The Parkland High School boys tennis team finished off its 2025 season with a successful run at the PIAA District 11 3A Tournament last week. Derek Yao won the individual championship and the Trojans, as a team, finished second overall to Liberty.

Head coach Lee Rizzotto is happy with what his team accomplished and how they performed all season, finishing 18-2 overall and 13-1 in conference matches.

“We took a step forward from last year,” said Rizzotto. “We made it a step further in team districts, finishing second. We won the EPC Tournament. We have the district singles Champ, Derek Yao, who will be heading to states. We earned a bronze medal in District Doubles with Manav Patel and Kevin Yao. We had a great balance of senior leadership and young talent. We are looking to improve at least one more step next year.”

Yao was the second seed in district singles and won four matches to win it all, winning 6-4, 6-2 over the top seed, Noah Rodburg of Freedom in the final. Manav Patel was the eighth seed and one his first match before falling to Rodburg. Kevin Yao also qualified for the field.

In doubles, Derek Yao and Patel made it to the semifinal round before losing to the top seed and champions from Emmaus. Jacky Zhang and Jack Chu won their first round match, but fell to the Green Hornets’ duo.

At team districts, the second-seeded Trojans beat Easton 5-0 in the quarterfinal round and then defeated the third seed, Emmaus, 4-1 in the semifinals. They fell just short to the Hurricanes 3-2 in the championship match.

“It was not an easy path,” Rizzotto said. “There is so much talent in the District. We had a talented roster that worked hard every day. The season is a marathon with different challenges, but our team stayed focused on what they could control, which was trying to get better every day and playing well on match day.”

Derek Yao was 15-1 in singles, including the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District tournaments. Manav Patel went 20-2 in singles and Kevin Yao was 18-3. Zhang and Chu went 18-5 in doubles, Eric Zager and Gabe Morse were 16-2 and Noah Elijovich and Matthew Huang finished 14-2. Kevin Yao, Chu, Zager and Morse will graduate.

“I am excited about the young, talented team we have returning,” said Rizzotto. “Derek Yao and Manav Patel are two of the top players in the district. We have young returning talent that gained a ton of experience this year including Doyoon Kim, Jacky Zhang, Noah Elijovich, Matthew Huang and Pranav Senthilkumar. I’m looking forward to seeing how the guys develop over the next year as we try to take another step forward as a team.”