URBANA — Fine, it was our varsity against their JV. It was more of a scrimmage than a real match. Their players were picked by their coach so we would play competitive tennis.

But we won.

Uni tennis beat the Urbana JV 6-4 on Monday at Blair Park. It wasn’t an upset, or really anything to gloat about. Its significance comes in that it was Uni’s first team tennis match ever.

Every weekday for several weeks, our 10-person co-ed team has walked to King Park in Urbana to practice for two hours after school — at least when the sky cooperates.

This is the second year that we have had a club, coached by David Bergandine, but this is the first in which we’ve really acted as a team. Last year, our numbers varied from about four to 14. This year, we’re all supposed to show up every day, and most of us do. Our team isn’t big, but it was enough to compete.

So on Monday we set out to Blair to play eight singles matches — that’s one for every boy on the team — and two doubles matches.

My first match was an eight-game match on Court 2 against a tall lefty with a strong serve and a solid lob. We held serve for the first six games.

Then something changed. We each broke each other’s serve on the next two points, tying us at 4-4. But I lost my next three games, giving my opponent a commanding lead. I made a small comeback, pulling within 6-7, but he won the final game for the 8-6 win. I learned the hard way that tennis is a game of endurance, although I do owe my opponent credit where it is due.

Luckily, my teammates were more successful in their singles endeavors. Senior Richard Wang won a tie-break thriller 8-7 for our first win. Seniors Allan Luo and Greg Atherton also won: 6-0 and 8-6, respectively. Freshman Robbie McMillen won his singles match 7-5. We lost three other matches, but they were competitive.

Allan and Robbie also won their doubles match, and Richard and I were last up for our doubles match. Our team would win overall if Richard and I could hold on for the victory. Both of us were gassed, but we had much more playing experience than our opponents. We won easily, 6-2.

The team’s win isn’t much to brag about, but it wasn’t entirely meaningless. When going up against a team four times our size, even beating their JV is an accomplishment.

If anything, it shows we are a legitimate team that can compete with other schools, even if we need to work on our conditioning before we send our two best to the IHSA sectionals on May 23.

It sent a positive message, at the very least.