Boys tennis: Redwood tops Branson for league title
The 2025 edition of the Redwood High boys tennis team isn’t coach Craig Flax’s all-time best, but the young Giants very well could be by the time the sophomores are seniors.
The top-seeded Giants completed an unbeaten MCAL season with a 4-3 victory over Branson in gusty winds on Friday at Novato High, adding the tournament pennant to their regular-season title.
Flax, in his ninth season at Redwood, led the Giants to their last North Coast Section title in 2018. He says his 2019 team was even better thanks to Stevie Gould, who went on to play at University of San Francisco, and Luke Neal, who played for Yale.
This year’s championship team features sensational sophomore Julian Zhang, who won the No. 1 singles match against Branson’s Mason Ogborne, 6-2, 6-0. With a group of six players who have been training together since middle school, Zhang says the Giants are ready to create new memories for Flax at NCS, which runs May 13-17.
“We really want to win this thing,” said Zhang. “We want to get a banner. We have high hopes — it’s going to be tough so we have to give it our all.”
Redwood swept all four singles matches with exceptional precision against Branson as the Bulls switched up their lineup to stack their three doubles lines. The move resulted in a much closer team score than the Bulls’ earlier losses to the Giants.
“I always expect Chrissie (Costamagna) to do something,” said Flax. “When you lose 6-1 twice, you have to do something.”
Redwood’s No. 2 singles player, Casra Afsharipour, only a freshman, dropped just one game. Sophomores Will Greenwald and Lukas Berger won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively.
Flax has been thrilled with Afsharipour, saying he’s already one of the top three singles players in the MCAL.
“I knew I was getting a strong player, but I didn’t know I was getting a beast,” said Flax. “He is incredible.”
Just as Redwood dominated singles, the Bulls won all three doubles matches.
“We knew it was going to be tough,” Costamagna said. “We had to come up with something a little different than we did in the regular season, and everybody played awesome. I am very, very proud of the team and I hope they’re happy with the way they played.”
In the closest match of the day, Branson’s No. 3 doubles team of Cal Keenley and Finn Higgins won six straight points to grab their first-set tiebreaker and then came from behind in the second set to edge Liam Martinez and Owen Adams 7-6, 7-6.
Tommie Higgins and Leighton Fraser posted a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 2 doubles. Chase Hoeveler and Ishwar Jayaraman teamed up for No. 1 doubles and were leading 6-3, 1-1 when their opponents retired.
Branson, which won the 2023 MCAL and NCS titles, is looking like a strong contender in the Division II sectional tournament. Rival University High of San Francisco has moved up to Division I and will challenge Redwood for bragging rights. Redwood beat University earlier in the season when the Giants played without Zhang and the Red Devils were without Gus Grumet of Mill Valley.
Redwood has reached at least the NCS semifinals four times in the past five seasons. The Giants suffered a narrow loss to eventual champ California last season in the semis, but advanced to the finals in 2022, 2019 and their 2018 championship season. (No tournaments in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID.)
Before the Giants and Bulls turn their attention to NCS, they will participate in the MCAL singles and doubles tournaments Monday through Wednesday at Flyte Racquet Club in San Rafael.