On a beautiful sunny Saturday, Deerfield fell 4-3 to rival Andover in a battle that came down to the last singles match. The loss brings Deerfield to 1-1 overall.
Deerfield came out firing in doubles, proving all of our hard work on the practice court would pay off! A new #3 team of Max Peh/Yongjin Park got a quick 8-2 win with consistent groundstrokes and punishing volleys; senior twins Noah and Oscar Depp then fell at #2 8-3, leaving the deciding match to the #1 team of Achille Sarachek/Jimmy Ueland. Though playing tough opponents, DA pulled out the win 8-6 by fearlessly attacking the ball and showing their superior skills at the net. The win clinched the doubles point for DA, giving us a 1-0 lead heading into singles.
Singles was bound to be difficult with Andover’s strong top two players and equally impressive depth throughout their lineup, and Deerfield dropped its first two singles matches at #5 and #4 to go down 1-2. As those matches ended, #2 Jimmy Ueland entered into a third set super tiebreaker to determine the winner of his match against Edward Wang; despite going down 3-6 in the breaker, Ueland’s aggressive tactics ultimately got him the win 6-1, 3-6, 10-7.
Now tied at 2-2, #1 Achille Sarachek was battling fellow senior Aidan Burt and trying to close out his match in two sets. Serving at 5-4, Sarachek’s serves proved too much to handle for Burt and he went on to win 6-4, 6-4, giving DA a 3-2 lead.
Right after Sarachek’s win, freshman Max Peh at #3 fell to Hudson Elegant 6-4, 6-1; Peh battled long point after long point but Elegant proved too consistent to crack.
With the match now tied at 3-3, and #6 Oscar Depp only at 2-1 in his match due to limited court availability, the match came down to the senior playing in only his second varsity match of his career. Though Depp ultimately lost 6-3, 6-0, it was an important learning experience for all and ultimately what Deerfield tennis is all about: great competition, great sportsmanship, and great comraderie.
Deerfield next takes on The Berkshire School- our first home match since 2019- on Friday, April 30 at 5pm.
Doubles Results:
#1 Sarachek/Ueland (DA) def. A. Burt/Katkavich 8-6
#2 Wang/Liao def. N. Depp/O. Depp (DA) 8-3
#3 Peh/Park (DA) def. Elegant/Zhu 8-2
Singles Results:
#1 Sarachek (DA) def. A. Burt 6-4, 6-4
#2 Ueland (DA) def. Wang 6-1, 3-6, 10-7
#3 Elegant def. Peh (DA) 6-4, 6-1
#4 Zhu def. N. Depp (DA) 6-4, 6-0
#5 Katkavich def. Salz (DA) 7-6(5), 6-0
#6 K. Burt def. O. Depp (DA) 6-3, 6-0
Order of finish: doubles 3,2,1; singles 5,4,2,1,3,6