For the seniors on the Pinewood boys tennis team, it’s about more than tennis. It’s about the memories, the jokes, the bonds, and the family the five seniors — Peyton Spinner, Max Roesch, Jason Rowe, Syon Mallempati, Elijah Kurian — have created through their time together. When asked about his time on the team, senior Peyton Spinner was focused on the tinier things, rather than the obvious ones.

“Simple things like driving to matches are some of my best memories,” Spinner said. “They’ve helped us bond so much.”

Similar to his teammate, team captain Max Roesch will miss the connection the group had built.

“It’s been a wild ride playing from freshman year during Covid,” Roesch said. “[We’ve had] a lot of fun memories during practices, matches, and conditioning.”

The time these seniors have spent together has brought many memories along the way. They recalled close, heated, and competitive matches throughout their high school careers, but their most memorable moment was senior night. Senior Jason Rowe, who will be playing collegiate tennis at Puget Sound University in the fall, considered the senior night matches against Nueva School to be his favorite experience.

“We all won our matches and stayed to watch each other,” Rowe said. “It was a great experience.”

While the memories of matches and car rides will stay with these seniors as they move on from Pinewood, the impact the tennis team has had on them will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Syon Mallempati emphasized how important the relationships he formed through the tennis team were to him.

“Pinewood tennis has been a gateway to better friendships and knowing people of different grades,” Mallempati said. “I have bonded with the other four seniors on the team by using tennis as a place to connect with them.”

While these seniors are approaching the end of their time at Pinewood, the relationships they’ve built through tennis have allowed them to form friendships that will stay with them past their high school years. No matter what the future holds, this tight-knit group will always have the memories with each other to hold onto.