BELCHERTOWN — Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School boys tennis coach Mike Locher has a Star Wars character assigned to each player on his team.

After every match, he sends his players a game recap, along with a YouTube video of their Star Wars character in action.

No. 2 singles player and sixth grader Lee Ferguson is Baby Yoda. It’s a fitting name in more ways than one. Ferguson’s shoulders barely clear the net, but he holds wisdom beyond his years and he’s only dropped a few games this year on his way to an undefeated record. In Wednesday afternoon’s match against Belchertown, PVCICS won 4-1 to continue their 9-0 start to the season and Ferguson won 6-0, 6-1. It’s the first time he’s dropped a game in a couple weeks, Locher said.

Though Ferguson has dominated taller, stronger and older competition, there has been one part of high school sports that has taken some adjusting.

“The only problem is that the uniform is a little long,” Ferguson said. “I have to tuck it in all the time.”

Ferguson started playing when he was 6 years old with his father, who played collegiate tennis. They practice every day at Smith College, where his mother teaches French. Though Roger Federer and Dominic Thiem are his favorite players, he models a lot of his game after his father.

“I got my one-hander from him,” Ferguson said. “I didn’t really know two-hander was a thing until I actually started getting into the game more, but he hit it that way, so I hit it that way.”

Last year, when he was in fifth grade, Ferguson and his father practiced at the same courts as PVCICS. After practice, Ferguson would sometimes hit with Hugo Shinn and Aidan Cleary, PVCICS’ top two singles players, and Ferguson held his own. 

He couldn’t wait to finally play on the team. Even this fall, Locher said Ferguson would come up to him in the halls and ask when the season started.

“Last year they were also good and I just remember thinking ‘yay, one more year and then I get to be on this team too,’” Ferguson said. “It’s been a really fun experience so far. I really like it.”

In Ferguson’s first career match earlier this season against Pope Francis, he felt some pressure facing an opponent so many years older than him. He thought back to his training and what his father has taught him in their practices.

“I like to think about it this way,” Ferguson said. “You can’t control everything on the tennis court – sometimes you can’t control it at all. But what you can control is your brain, you want to just stay positive and chill. I feel like I play much better that way. I like just being happy on the court. Instead of feeling sad after I lose a point or something, I feel like laughing and smiling more and I think that just helps. I hit three straight double faults in one game and I just started laughing.”

Ferguson won 6-3, 6-0. Midway through the season, it’s still his closest match.

He also travels to tennis tournaments about every other weekend. Next weekend, he’s heading to Manchester-by-the-Sea for four days of tennis. There’s a pizza party at Friday’s practice that Ferguson is especially excited for. But even when he’s playing against national competition, Ferguson has his priorities straight.

“My dad likes to tell me that no matter what, I learned from it and got better,” Ferguson said. “It’s happened before, where I’ve gone to a tournament and I’ve done pretty bad and I learned from it and then I go to the next one and I win it and it feels good. My dad’s like ‘it’s not like one is better than the other. You learn the same amount of stuff because you played great in both.’”

PVCICS pulls out pair of three-setters

Elsewhere on the court, PVCICS came back to win a pair of marathon matches at first singles and second doubles.

In first singles, Aidan Cleary pulled out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Trevor Weiss. Belchertown coach Zach Siano was impressed.

“For Aidan to overcome Trevor – he had lost to him last year, I think Trevor won in straight sets – so for him to go down a set and then come all the way back on that was a huge win for Aidan and some of the best tennis I’ve seen Trevor play all year,” Siano said.

And in second doubles, the final match of the afternoon to conclude, PVCICS’ duo of Devan Ye and Clayton English won 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 over Jake Gormely and Mason Pobiego.

Teddy and James Scott won first doubles 6-2, 6-1 over Tyler Burrows and Camryn Kaczowska.

PVCICS has five regular season matches remaining as they continue their pursuit of an undefeated season. They finish out with Frontier, Lee and Longmeadow.

The lone Orioles’ winner of the afternoon was Luke Dudek, who defeated Gabe Loinaz 6-1, 6-1 in third singles.

Belchertown is looking to reclaim the Valley Wheel title after losing it last year for the first time in a decade. The Orioles play Ludlow on May 7 for a match that could decide the league. If Belchertown wins, they’ll claim the title, and if they lose, the best they can do is share the title with Ludlow.