Langley pulls off another sweep of Virginia Class 6 tennis titles

“Last year at this time, looking towards this year, we had no expectation or hope or thought that we would be here now,” Henryson said. “We thought for sure that a twofer was all that we would be able to pull off. So we’re really pleased.”

After a minor rule change in the brackets resulted in the Saxons being pitted against Thomas Jefferson, a more challenging finals opponent than in past years, Langley knew it would have to rely on every member of the lineup.

Sophomore Zosia Henryson-Gibbs kicked off some momentum at Huntington Park in Newport News with a 6-3, 6-2 win vs. training partner Sasha Zykova in No. 1 singles, but when her sister, senior Arakai Henryson-Gibbs, lost her No. 2 singles match to Karis Kim, 6-2, 6-4, she was worried she had dashed her team’s hopes of defending the title.

“I was crying in between sets,” Arakai Henryson-Gibbs said. “It was really bad because I thought that when I lost the first set, I thought that I was throwing the match for my team and throwing the state title. … But I should have had more faith in them because they really came through in the end.”

The singles matches wound up tied at 3, meaning the three doubles matches would settle things. The Saxons secured an early win from freshman Isha Joshi and sophomore Sophie Li at No. 3 doubles, and senior Penny Walke and freshman Hannah Chopus clinched the title with a hard fought, 6-2, 3-6, 11-9 victory to secure the team win, 5-3.

For the Langley boys (12-0), the final had them up against a familiar opponent. In a rematch of last year, the Saxons again defeated rival McLean, this time 5-3, relying on the confidence that came from playing the Highlanders several times throughout the regular season.

“We know them. We live five or 10 minutes away from them, and so we knew that they were going to fight hard,” said senior Adi Gupta, who won at No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles. “But we just went in with the belief that we got this but also to be ready for their full effort.”

But that familiarity didn’t mean everything went as expected. After finishing the singles matches up 4-2, Gupta entered his No. 1 doubles match with Nikola Galov eager to get the final point needed for the team win. But McLean’s Marco Zhang and Noah Jewelewicz gave them a tense fight, forcing a tiebreaker that finally handed the win to the Langley duo, 6-0, 7-6 (7-2).

In the battle for the Class 5 boys title, Riverside swept Frank Cox, 5-0.

For senior Ricky Hota, it was a chance to redeem the finals loss suffered his freshman year by ending his high school career with a 6-1, 6-2 win in No. 1 singles.

“Now in my senior year, the stars just aligned,” Hota said. “It was a full circle moment for me, and any regrets from my freshman year, I was able to get some revenge on it.”

The Class 4 girls’ finals featured another sibling headliner as Broad Run secures a 5-2 win over Courtland. Freshman Lexi Rotaru and junior Izzy Rotaru dominated at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, as Lexi won, 6-2, 6-0, and Izzy cruised, 6-0, 6-0.