Breaking News: Boys Tennis Season Finishes Strong

What an amazing season for BT’s 2025 boys tennis team! Their last competition, States, finished on Tuesday, October 21st.

The Varsity team’s record was 17-4 this year— and they won the South Sioux City Invite, got third at the Elkhorn North tournaments, and went 2-1 in Kearney. Their performance out there gave them their ticket to qualify for the Dual Championship.

Junior Varsity had a lot of new players this past season, and they won most of their duals. This was told to me by head coach Mark Smith, who led the team to success alongside his assistant coach, Kim Gradoville.

The team wasn’t just guided by their coaches, but also by their letter winners: Ivan Pfeffer, Rishi Chundury, Eric Zhou, Jimmy Chen, Adam Roka, Timothy Chen, Cameron Vakili, and Jarvis Gushard.

The main highlights at states were senior Ivan Pfeffer ending up in second place in #2 singles and Junior Rishi Chundury finishing in eight place for #1 singles. Ivan’s advance to finals and Rishi’s to quarterfinals accomplished both of Mr. Smith’s goals. #1 doubles team Eric Zhou (senior) and Jimmy Chen (junior) lost in second round after a 8-2 win over York.

Going into states, Rishi was ranked 7th with a record of 20-5. He had two easy wins, before going down to Omaha Skutt Catholic in quarterfinals. Rishi then played against Lincoln Standing Bear and Lexington, ending up in eight place.

Ivan hadn’t played singles all year, but his 12-0 record was enough to get him ranked fourth. Ivan won four matches in a row before his 6-2, 6-2 loss to Mount Michael’s Andrew Pentel. He finished as States runner up— a grand finish to his high school tennis career!

Eric and Jimmy had an impressive 8-2 upset over the 11th seed York. They fought strong against the sixth seed, Lexington, and were able to get three games off them. BT’s #2 doubles, Roman Harms and Jake Stadig, are both seniors from Concordia (who partners with BT for tennis), but they sadly went down first round against Adam’s Central.

In the end, the Varsity teams finished in eight place at States, with 20 points. “Our goal at the beginning of the year was to have players make it to the 2nd day of States and to finish in the Top 10,” Mr. Smith stated. “Proud that we accomplished both goals this fall.”