Mountain Pointe senior Andy Nguyen is ranked as the top player in the state and could be going for his second singles championship this season.
By Larry Ward | Ahwatukee Foothills News
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – This is Andy Nguyen’s last season on a high school tennis court, and with the exception of Mountain Pointe, there aren’t any programs in the state of Arizona sorry about that.
The Pride senior has dominated the competition as a singles and doubles player the past three seasons and is currently the top rated player in the United States Tennis Association Southwest Section for his age division.
As a freshman Nguyen won the state doubles championship with Pride teammate Erik Sheldon, then joined a long line of Mountain Pointe players, including his brother, Dan, to win a state singles championship as a sophomore. He was the runner-up to Tucson Salpointe’s Cameron Ahari for the singles title last season.
Andy Nguyen practicing his swing.
Nguyen is seldom off the tennis court and was named the male Outstanding Juniors Player last season by the USTA Southwest Section last year.
He went into this season on a roll winning the Southwest Section Phoenix Junior and Mesa Spring Sweet 16 championships last month.
In both tournaments Nguyen defeated his juniors tennis doubles partner and Corona del Sol’s No. 1 player, Garret Dunn for the championship.
“This is a gentleman’s sport,” Mountain Pointe coach Dan Ray explained. “They can be friends off the court and competitive on, but Andy is playing very well right now.”
Mountain Pointe has come up with a strong newcomer in the second spot behind Nguyen this season.
Richie Snelling, a junior transfer from California, should give the Pride a solid player in that spot while senior Brandon Tse gets the third sport.
“Snelling is a very good player,” Ray added. “He had some ankle issues during the spring but he’ll compete in the No. 2 spot very well. And Brandon is going to be a good No. 3 player for us.”
Chad Vitlhana has moved up from his spot in the junior varsity last season to hold down the No. 4 spot followed by senior Tyler Petcher. Another senior, Joey Van Fretchen, rounds out the sixth player on the ladder.
“We should be pretty decent and competitive,” Ray said. “We’re strong in singles and we should be good in doubles.”
With Dunn leading the Corona team and Admad Saleem, ranked among the top 20 among 18 year-olds in the USTA Southwest Section, the Central Region should be one of the most competitive in the state.
But Ray said Brophy will be the team to beat this year.
“Like Corona,” Ray said, “they have a lot of players coming back where Salpointe had a lot of seniors last season so they probably won’t be as strong.”
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