On Satuday, the Boys’ JV Tennis team hosted a strong Andover Varsity B squad at home. Coming off last year’s 4-3 victory, the Big Green knew they were in for another close match this year.
Doubles got the day off to a thrilling start. Playing as a new pair at #3, Max Bronckers ’17 and Josh Fang ’19 fell to a solid Andover pair, 8-4. At #2, despite playing down a break for most of their pro-set, Joni Otto-Bernstein ’18 and Eli Ji ’19 showed tremendous fight, clawing back to force a tie-break, then gutting out a win 10-8 in the breaker. With the thrilling win, the doubles point came down to #1, when conversely, Jeffrey So ’19 and Alex Alijani ’19 had surrendered the lead they held for most of the set. Pushed to a tiebreak, the sophomore duo played some of their best doubles of the day, winning the tiebreak 7-4, and securing the doubles point for the Big Green.
Singles, however, proved to be a bit of a different story. Perhaps motivated by their close losses in doubles, Andover came out firing, quickly securing first sets at #1, #2, #4, and #5. Although the Big Green fought back in all those matches, Andover was able to secure straight-set victories at all four positions, thus, securing the match. Although the match was clinched, Joni Otto-Bernstein ’18 and Josh Fang ’19 continued to fight at #3 and #6, respectively, each pushed to third-set super tiebreakers. Josh put up a strong showing against a tough opponent, falling 10-8, while Joni gutted out his second tie-break win of the day, winning by the same score.
The 5-2 loss ends a toughest stretch of the season for the team, facing three strong teams in succession, and brings the team’s record to 2-2. With these great experiences under their belt, the boys hope to get back in the win column at NMH this coming Wednesday.
Doubles:
1: Jeffrey So/Alex Alijani: 9-8(4)
2: Joni Otto-Bernstein/Eli Ji: 9-8(8)
3: Max Bronckers/Josh Fang: 4-8
Singles:
1: Eli Ji: 2-6, 3-6
2: Jeffrey So: 2-6, 3-6
3: Joni Otto-Bernstein: 6-3, 3-6, (10-8)
4: Alex Alijani: 5-7, 1-6
5: Max Bronckers: 2-6, 3-6
6: Josh Fang: 6-4, 0-6, (8-10)