Pandey brought his 3rd district boys tennis title home to Saucon Valley this season

Saucon Valley junior Deven Pandey has competed in three District 11 Class 2A boys singles tournaments in his career. And at the end of each tourney, the Panther has ended play with a gold medal around his neck.

He’s honored to have represented his school for three championships and is looking forward to going for the clean sweep of gold in his senior season.

“I love it, especially since I’ve been at Saucon since kindergarten year,” Pandey said. “Throughout elementary school and middle school, I always knew that I was probably going to play on the team. And being able to finally play on the team and perform well, it means everything. I’m really glad that I’m able to represent the team and I love my school. I was just recognized at one of the board meetings for the school, so that was amazing.”

For his ability to turn tournament entries into gold medals, Pandey is the 2024 lehighvalleylive.com Boys Tennis Player of the Year.

He’s the first Saucon Valley boys tennis player to earn the award since Tej Laliwala in 2019.

Pandey posted back-to-back 6-0, 6-0 victories over Lehighton’s Bekim and Bayto Cokrilja to start the District 11 Class 2A singles tournament. The top-seeded Panther then defeated Moravian Academy’s Aveer Chadha 6-0, 6-4 in the semifinals.

In the championship match, Pandey bounced back from a 3-1 deficit in the first set and clinched a 6-4, 6-2 win over Moravian Academy’s Ford Koch.

The Saucon Valley junior had consecutive 8-0 victories over Palmerton’s Colby Chadwick and Southern Lehigh’s Alex Ahnert in the Colonial League No. 1 singles tournament. Pandey then posted an 8-2 win over Koch to earn the league title.

The Panther went 19-1 overall this season with his only loss coming in the first round of the state tournament against Cathedral Prep’s Jonah Ng.

“Deven can hit all the shots, and knows how to construct a point and play a match,” Saucon Valley coach Mike Krentz said. “But what makes him stand out is his tenacity, the way he plays every point, and the way he moves on when things are going badly. This year that really showed in the best match I’ve seen him play, when he defeated Max Arkans from Quakertown, a senior who had beaten him the previous two years. Deven won the first set in a tiebreaker, but then dropped the second 2-6. It was a very hot day, but Deven bounced right back and won the third set 6-3.”

Pandey wanted to talk about Neil Curtis, who has coached him since he was 4 years old.

“Neil Curtis, he’s easily the biggest inspiration for me and one of, if not, the most important coaches in my career so far,” Pandey said. “He’s always taught me to be calm and cool-headed on the court and I think that’s helped me a lot.”

“I’m still doing lessons with him every once in a while,” the Saucon Valley standout added about working with Curtis. “Whenever I’m doing more lessons with him, I’m playing better. Obviously, just playing more, which helps. I think especially since I’ve been with him so long, I can be very cool and calm with him and I have nothing to worry about. I find when I’m not stressed about anything else, I play a lot better.”

The Saucon Valley standout hopes next year will mean a career sweep in the District 11 Class 2A singles tournament and maybe even a run in his final stop in the state tourney.

“The most important thing for me at this point is just being more consistent,” Pandey said. “I just need to make more shots on the court because I know what I have to do in terms of the better shots that I need to hit or putting balls away or winning points quicker. I like to think of it as I need to be more consistent first and from there I can work on everything else.”

Along with his individual accomplishments this season, Pandey enjoyed his year with his teammates. The Panthers finished the year 12-3 and advanced to the district team semifinals.

“It is a privilege to have Deven on our team at Saucon Valley,” Krentz said. “In addition to being an excellent player, he is a good teammate, working to help the other players on our team to improve. He shares his knowledge and works with less experienced players, and listens to his coaches.”

“Overall, it was a good season. I really enjoyed it, especially with my team members and my coaches around me,” Pandey said. “I was playing pretty consistently throughout the year. So, I felt like I was ready for the season. Then, when it came time for the matches, I felt good. I played some of the best tennis I’ve ever played in a few of my matches this year. I really enjoyed this season because some of my team members this year won’t be here next year and those were some of my favorite times.”

The Saucon Valley boys tennis team bids farewell to seniors Will Nagy, Sebastian Jaramillo-Zamora, Jeffrey Holzbaur, Braeden Schriffert and Martin Jaramillo-Zamaro.

“Will Nagy, he was first doubles. We’ve been friends for so long now. Just having him on the tennis team was just great because we were already friends before that,” Pandey said.

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Josh Folck may be reached at jfolck@lehighvalleylive.com.