Spirits were high early on Saturday morning as the fellas piled into a van to make the trip south to Wallingford. Fresh off a tremendous singles showing against Groton, and still carrying a lot of doubles confidence from NEMA, we were optimistic about our chances against the Wild Boars.
We beautifully executed a multifaceted attack on the doubles portion of the match: Carl and Scott kept their opponents at arms’ length, 8-5, NEMA champs Deepak and Alfi closed out their opponents 8-3, and although Matthew and Gideon were unable to serve out the match at 8-7, they blitzed through the tiebreak to drop only a single point. Adding to the festivities, NEMA runner-ups Cosmo and Arthur tallied an 8-5 win of their own at the exhibition spot.
Singles promised to be a dogfight, as Coach Gallagher’s team features young talent complemented by experienced veterans, but Carl led the charge, first off with a convincing win: 6-4, 6-2. Gideon, a one-man audience to Overmeer’s laser show, hung in there to finish off a 6-4, 6-3 triumph (quote of the day: “I’m trying something new today, Coach; it’s called ‘focus’”) and put us up 3-0. We then turned to Scott for the clincher (his second in a row), where he withstood renewed effort from Powers to win 6-2, 6-4. Deepak added our last victory to the pile, shaking off a barrage of first serves from Bellemare to take the next two sets. Across the way, Matthew and Alfi both came up short in tight second sets.
Thanks to Carl’s dad, Scott’s family, and Deepak’s aunt for their support today. We get right back on court against Williston on Monday, before roadtripping to Hotchkiss on Wednesday and welcoming Exeter to town on Saturday. As always, live updates will continue @deerfieldtennis.
Deerfield 5, Choate 2
Carl Grant/Scott Danforth (D) d. Andres Ballesteros/Will Powers (C) 8-5
Matthew Wuyan/Gideon Yektai (D) d. Parth Mody/Alex Coletti (C) 9-8 (1)
Alfi Auersperg/Deepak Pathapati (D) d. Charles Bellemare/Chris Overmeer (C) 8-3
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Grant (D) d. Ballesteros (C) 6-4, 6-2
Danforth (D) d. Powers (C) 6-2 6-4
Mody (C) d. Wuyan (D) 6-3, 6-4
Coletti (C) d. Auersperg (D) 6-1, 7-5
Pathapati (D) d. Bellemare (C) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
Yektai (D) d. Overmeer (C) 6-4, 6-3
Order of finish: Doubles 1,3,2; Singles 1,6,2,5,3,4