Last season, the Parkland High School boys tennis team finished the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 tournaments as runner-up to Liberty.

In 2026, the Trojans are looking to get past the Hurricanes and hoist gold. Kevin Yao, Eric Zager, Jack Chu and Gabe Morse all graduated from last year’s squad.

Derek Yao won the singles championship at districts, leading the way to Parkland finishing the year 18-2 overall and 13-1 in the conference.

Yao is back, along with Manav Patel, the top singles player in the district, Jacky Zhang, the number three singles player, along with the doubles teams of Doyoon Kim/Noah Elijovich and Matthew Huang/Pranav Senthilkumar.

Some key newcomers to the team this season that Rizzotto expects all to contribute in doubles and even at singles in some cases, are Tyson Noto, Ajay Gade, Madhav Sharma and Ryan Shan.

Rizzotto sees a ton of strengths in this season’s team, and some areas of improvement.

“Our strengths are definitely with our singles and returning starters from last year,” said Rizzotto. “We are always looking to improve in all areas. We have new combinations of doubles players that have a short time to mesh and improve on team play.”

The lineup should usually look like: Yao at No. 1 singles, Patel at No. 2 and Zhang at No. 3. Kim, Elijovich, Noto, Huang, Senthilkumar,

Gade and Sharma all will be competing in doubles, with the combinations expected to alternate from match to match.

After last season, goals and expectations remain high for the program.

“We set high goals,” Rizzotto said. “We are looking to compete for the top team spot in both the EPC and District 11. We also have singles and doubles players that will challenge for top honors in the league and district.”

The Trojans have begun the season 3-0, defeating Pleasant Valley in the home and season opener back on Monday, March 9, then taking care of Easton that Wednesday and Liberty two days later.

Parkland downed the Hurricanes 4-2. Yao and Patel won at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, by scores of 6-0, 6-0 for Yao and 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 for Patel.

Liberty won the top doubles set, but the Trojans responded by winning at No. 3 and No. 4 as Noto/Huang won 7-5, 6-3 and Senthilkumar/Gade were victorious 6-4, 6-4.