AMHERST – On a beautiful, sunny day at Hampshire College on Thursday, the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School swept Belchertown, 5-0, in boy’s tennis action. The Dragons (8-2) put together a near flawless performance as they shut out the Orioles in the majority of the total games played for their third match victory in a row.

“I guess we’re 8-2 right now and we lost to Northampton, we lost to a team out in Boston, we shouldn’t really lose any of the other matches as long as we stay healthy,” Dragons head coach Mike Locher said.

PVCICS ran the table in two of the three singles matches (Quinn Jimenez won third singles via forfeit) as first singles’ Lee Ferguson and second singles’ Derek Ye each took 6-0, 6-0 victories. Belchertown’s Luke Dudek competed against Ferguson and Jake Gormely battled against Ye.

In doubles, Teddy and James Scott defeated Tyler Burrows and Mason Pobieglo, 6-1, 6-0. Then, Gabe Loinaz and Simon Speek downed Josh O’Connor and Liam Sherwood, 6-0, 6-1. The Orioles’ record fell to 5-5 following the loss.

PVCICS’ young talent has been its calling card all season and Thursday was no different. Ferguson, a seventh-grader, moved his individual record to 9-1 as the Dragons’ No. 1 singles while Ye, a freshman, improved to 6-1. 

Derek’s brother, Devon, did not compete on Thursday, but is normally in the third singles spot for the Dragons. While Ferguson garners a lot of attention due to his impressive talents at such a young age, the Ye brothers aren’t that far off from their teammate two years their junior.

“They’re young, they’re getting tall and kind of gangly, but Derek, in particular, has the ability...he doesn’t hit with a lot of power, but he hits with a huge amount of precision,” Locher said. “In the match today, he was able to hit the corners, hit the sidelines, he’s very, very good at putting the ball right where he wants it. I think he’s a very strong player. [Against Boston Latin earlier this season] Derek was very, very competitive against a very, very strong player.

“Devon is a little more hit or miss,” Locher said. “He tends to lose focus a little bit, he hits a lot harder. When he’s hitting his forehand, there’s very few players that can hit it back, but he’ll get one in and three out, so he’s a little more hit or miss. Again, he’s a developing player, very, very strong for his age, so I’m looking forward to the next couple of years of having him grow and develop and get stronger and stronger.”

While it’s nothing new for Locher, coaching young players at the high school level who are as vital to the team as they are, is a bit of a unique situation. Locher revealed that even though athletes like Ferguson and the Ye brothers joined the Dragons team quite early, they’re more prepared for the high-school level than outsiders might realize.

“A lot of them come having had coaching, so they’ve got the technique,” Locher said. “It’s more managing the match, not losing focus and talking strategy, because they got the strokes. That’s the nice thing. I think a lot of [other] coaches are trying to coach the techniques for kids who are young that are coming up. I’ve got young kids who bring the skills, it’s just a matter of them learning how to manage a tough match or even an easy match, because they’ll sort of go to la-la land for a little while, lose their focus and drop a game or two.”

PVCICS’ youth will be tested next week with five straight matches Monday through Friday. The Dragons are entering the stretch run of their regular-season slate and with the postseason getting closer and closer, Locher understands keeping his athletes energized is crucial.

“Our seniors have their finals next week, so I’m not sure if I’ll have Teddy and James, my first doubles team, for three of the matches,” Locher said. “Which will hurt us because we’re deep for a Western Mass. small school, but we’re not necessarily deep playing against a Minnechaug, which we have next week. It’ll be our first match against Frontier [too], and they’re our league rival, so it’ll be interesting. I already told the team, I’m going to give some guys days off, here and there. I’ll have to be smart in how I use them, give them breaks.”

PVCICS will travel to Minnechaug on Monday, May, 5 with the match scheduled to start at 4 p.m.