Aragon boys' tennis three-peats as Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division champions following a 6-1 win over Carlmont

But now there is a new dynasty in town. Hosting second-place Carlmont in the regular-season finale, the Bay-leading Dons had a chance to win its third straight crown. But instead of rooting for four wins, the minimum to win high school best-of-seven team matches, Aragon head coach Dave Owdom was rooting for three points.

The Dons came into Wednesday match one game ahead of both Burlingame and Carlmont. An Aragon loss to Carlmont, coupled with Burlingame’s 6-1 win over Woodside and there would have been a three-way tie for the Bay Division title.

But then there would be the matter of determining the league’s one automatic bid to the Central Coast Section playoffs and then determine which of the two remaining teams would be the No. 1 seed in the PAL CCS play-in tournament.

The first tiebreaker is final scores head to head. Aragon needed just three wins over the Scots to assure the Dons the No. 1 spot out of the Bay Division and into CCS.

But Aragon ended up doubling that number, as the Dons rolled to a 6-1 win over Carlmont in San Mateo Wednesday for their third consecutive Bay Division championship.

“It’s means I must have had some pretty good players,” Owdom said.

The match, however, was less than hour old and Carlmont (9-3 PAL Bay) already led 1-0 in the team score as the Scots’ No. 1 singles player Lucas Rowe completed an undefeated Bay Division campaign, going a perfect 12-0 without dropping a set after a quick 6-0, 6-0 win.

“He just does everything well,” Owdom said of Rowe. “When [you have a high rating], you don’t have many weaknesses.

“And he has a really big serve, too.”

Rowe had supplanted last year’s No. 1, Aaron Zhang, who moved to the No. 2 singles spot this season and was having the same kind of success Rowe did. Zhang came into Wednesday’s finale with a perfect 11-0 mark against Bay Division competition and had dropped only one set.

Aragon’s Pacome Polly, an exchange student from France, took that set off Zhang March 17, who rallied back to win a third-set tiebreaker to post a 3-6, 6-0, 10-6 win.

Wednesday, Polly looked like he was going to easily hand Zhang his first league loss of the season. Zhang won the first game of the first set before Polly blitzed him, winning the next six games to take the set, 6-1.

And Zhang was discombobulated, yelling at himself as that first set slipped away. He was still on tilt to start the second and Polly took advantage, winning the first three games of the second set to give him nine games in a row.

But Zhang regrouped and went on to win four games straight games for a 4-3 advantage. The two stayed on served until Zhang broke Polly in the 12th game of the second set to notch a 7-5 decision and send the match to a super tiebreaker.

Three times Polly faced match point in that super tiebreaker. He was down 9-6 with Zhang on serve before Polly won three points in row to tie it at 9-all in the race to 10, win by 2.

Polly took a 10-9 lead on an overhead winner and then handed Zhang his first loss in Bay play when a Zhang return went long to give Polly a 11-9 decision to cap the most entertaining match of the day.

“Pacome played with so much heart,” Owdom said. “That’s a huge upset.”

That win was the sixth, and final, point for Aragon, which after losing at No. 1 singles, won the first set in all six other matches. Darrin O’Brien gave the Dons their first point with a 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 3 singles and took the lead for good when the No. 2 doubles team of Alex Barnett and Joshua Lee posted a 6-3, 6-4.

Azmir Khan collected Aragon’s third point with a 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 4 singles and the Dons needed just one win at No. 2 singles, No. 1 doubles or No. 3 doubles to clinch the match.

At one point, all three were in doubt. The Dons’ No. 1 doubles team of Max Gan and Adam Beg won their first set 6-4, but the Carlmont duo of Filip Pejakovic and Aaroha Save rebounded to win the second, 4-6, and force a third-set super tiebreaker.

The Dons’ duo pulled it back together, ultimately cruising to a 10-4 decision and clinching that all-important fourth team point.

The No. 3 doubles match looked it was headed for a third-set super tiebreak. The Aragon pair of Linus Feng and Kian Cheung won the first set 6-3, but the Carlmont team of Nathan Reznik and Max Margolis were poised to win the second set, as they built a 5-3 lead.

But Feng and Cheung came roaring back. They won three straight games to take a 6-5 lead before Reznik and Margolis won the 12th game to force a second-set tiebreaker. Feng and Cheung went on to finish their comeback, winning 7-4 and taking the match, leaving just No. 2 singles left to complete.

Aragon’s third straight title came as a bit of a surprise to Owdom. The Dons graduated six players from last year’s title team Owdom didn’t know what the expect heading into 2026.

“To me, Burlingame was going to win it,” Owdom said, adding Burlingame was returning six players from last year’s second-place squad.

But the Dons knocked off the Panthers in the third match of the season, 6-1, before Burlingame returned the favor with a 5-2 win April 7 to tighten up the division race.

“We got Burlingame early,” Owdom said. “They were still figuring things out in doubles and they were missing they’re No. 3 (singles) guy.”

But Owdom knew his team was a player for the title after beating Carlmont 5-2 in their first meeting March 17.

Despite the loss, Carlmont will still have a shot at qualifying for CCS. They will join top-seeded Burlingame. No. 3 Menlo-Atherton and Ocean champ, and No. 4 seed, Hillsdale in the CCS PAL play-in tournament Thursday and Friday.

Burlingame will host Hillsdale, while Carlmont, the No. 2 seed, with host Menlo-Atherton at 4 p.m. Thursday. The winners will play at the higher seed at 4 p.m. Friday with the winner going to the CCS team tournament.