No matter how you cut it, the 2021 Parkland boys tennis season has been perfect.

The Trojans have been like the proverbial knife to hot butter this year, earning a 14-0 record and last Friday tying Liberty for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship.

“It’s been an interesting year,” said Parkland head coach Michael Hingston. “I think we have appreciated it more than ever considering everything going on.”

Many members of this year’s squad are personally close.

“The kids really seem to like each other and that’s great,” said Hingston.

Sophomore Josh Thomas, the team’s number one singles player, has had a superb season. He rose from near obscurity to the team’s top singles spot thanks to his talent and confidence. His EPC Tournament experience was not as successful, as he lost to Liberty’s Anthony Ronca in the quarterfinals.

In the EPC’s No. 2 singles bracket, Parkland’s Dan Zolotarev beat Central Catholic’s Dylan Alvarez in the quarterfinals and Bethlehem Catholic’s Armaan Makwana in the semis. However, Zolotarev could not handle Liberty’s Shayaan Farhad in the championship.

“Both of them were going up against some tremendous competition,” said Hingston. “Sometimes you have to grin and bear it.”

Fyodor D’Souza, the Trojans’ number three singles player, won his EPC bracket defeating Freedom’s Gavin Labaddia in the championship.

“Fyodor has just been stellar all season,” Hingston said. “He plays with consistency and has the type of game where he can adapt to his opponent. He has an all-court game.”

It was Parkland’s doubles teams that made the difference at leagues. Ankit Lenka and Lucas Lee won the number two doubles group, downing Liberty’s Roman Farhad and Sid Tekumalla in the championship. Mridul Gupta and Josh Jaffe did the same thing in the number three championship, defeating Liberty’s Gavin Gartley and Luke Appleman in the title match. The number four doubles duo - Ee-Ning Ooi and Taehyuk Yang - also won its group by beating Liberty’s Chris Giannaris and Tyler Markovich for the gold.

“We focused a lot on doubles all year,” Hingston said. “A lot of times people take doubles for granted and they focus on the singles.”