We took on Andover on a calm, cloudy Saturday afternoon. Coach Wilkin (who I coached with during the spring of 2014) always has a tough squad, and although we battled hard, the boys in green were unable to put a win on the board. Doubles came down to Alfi and Artie at 3, where a few mistakes in Alfi’s 6-7 serve game gave Andover the doubles point. PA took a quick 3-0 lead after some brilliant play at the bookends of the lineup, but Scott, ever dependable, kept Denholm at arm’s length to break the shutout.
Repeated momentum swings at the 3, 4 (Alfi saving triple match point in the second), and 5 positions ended up in a trio of third sets; Matthew was first to break through to bring the match score to 3-2. Deepak also found himself down triple match point, but an ill-timed bout of cramping from his opponent allowed our freshman to climb back in it. Two games later, Shen retired, in pain and unable to move, meaning the match score was 3-3 and it all came down to Alfi.
Alfi did as much as he could against Johnson’s slick carve-em-up game (breaking back at 1-3 after over ten deuces), but came up just short in the end, four hours and 25 minutes after play first began.
Although we showed a great deal of heart today, losing is never fun. We go back to the drawing board this week before playing NMH on Wednesday and traveling to Philly for the New England-Mid Atlantic Invitational on Sunday. Thanks to Mr. Auersperg, Mr. Grant, Mr. Wuyan, Dr. Curtis, and the many others who came to support us. Live match updates will continue on Twitter, @deerfieldtennis
Andover 4, Deerfield 3
Carl Grant/Scott Danforth (D) d. Anupreeth Coramutla/Chase Denholm (A) 8-6
Will Way/Nash Johnson (A) d. Matthew Wuyan/Gideon Yektai (D) 8-4
Tyler Shen/Sean Kralik (A) d. Alfi Auersperg/Arthur Yao (D) 8-6
—
Coramutla (A) d. Grant (D) 6-0, 6-2
Danforth (D) d. Denholm (A) 6-3, 6-2
Wuyan (D) d. Way (A) 7-6 (1), 2-6, 6-4
Johnson (A) d. Auersperg (D) 7-5, 5-7, 6-3
Deepak Pathapati (D) d. Shen (A) 6-4, 1-6, 4-5 ret.
Kralik (A) d. Yektai (D) 6-1, 6-0
Order of finish: Doubles 2,1,3; singles 6,1,2,3,5,4