Boys varsity tennis lost to Andover 6-1 away on Saturday, April 22.
For the first time all season the Doors dropped all three doubles matches. Despite leading for most of the match, #1 Brick Johnson/Ethan Li dropped four games in a row to lose their contest 8-5 against two good returners. At #2, back-from-injury Max Peh and partner Tai Feng battled hard but fell 8-4. #3 Anthony Sparacio/Walker Naughton had the toughest matchup of the day and couldn’t get themselves into enough points to challenge their opponents.
Despite their best efforts, things didn’t go much better in singles. #3-5 struggled to win more than three games in any of their straight-set losses; only #6 Ryan Diffley and #2 Ethan Li were able to win 4 games in a set. Brick Johnson logged DA’s only win of the day at the #1 position with a solid 6-3, 7-5 victory over Ethan Wong. Johnson’s big serve and aggressive groundstrokes were dominant in the first set; though cramping halfway through the second set, he played steady with both teams loudly cheering on their players and never dropped another game after going down 4-5 in the second set.
The loss puts the overall record at 2-3 for the season. The Doors will be back in action on Wednesday, 4/26 against local opponent Northfield Mount Hermon in Gill, MA at 3pm.
RESULTS
Order of finish (doubles): 3,2,1
1. Wong/Liao def. Johnson/Li (DA) 8-5
2. Shin/Burke def. Peh/Feng (DA) 8-4
3. Niu/Zheng def. Sparacio/Naughton (DA) 8-1
Order of finish (singles): 5,3,4,2,6,1
1. Brick Johnson (DA) def. Wong 6-3, 7-5
2. Shin def. Ethan Li (DA) 6-1, 6-4
3. Zhu def. Anthony Sparacio (DA) 6-2, 6-2
4. Niu def. Tai Feng (DA) 6-3, 6-3
5. Zheng def. Walker Naughton (DA) 6-0, 6-2
6. Burt def. Ryan Diffley (DA) 6-4, 6-1