Boys varsity tennis fell to Exeter 5-2 on Saturday, 5/13. It was a beautiful day for tennis and a close battle with hard fought matches almost across the board; it was also senior Jack Willett’s last home match as a Door, and though he lost his exhibition singles match he and partner Ryan Diffley got a good win in exhibition doubles 8-4.
DA clinched the doubles point in dramatic fashion with wins at #3 (Walker Naughton/Anthony Sparacio) and a come-from-behind win at #1, where the teams’ co-captains rallied from 4-7 to win it in a tiebreaker.
In singles, Exeter regained momentum logging its first two wins at the #5 and #1 positions, respectively. In fact, Exeter won the first set on five of the six courts; the Doors, however, were not willing to give in so easily. Though #3 Ethan Li was the next to fall to a very solid opponent, giving Exeter a 3-1 match lead, #4 Max Peh came back from losing his second set to win his match 10-2 in a deciding superbreaker to put DA within one point. Meanwhile, #2 Tom Molson and #6 Walker Naughton were fighting tooth-and-nail hoping to collectively clinch the win for DA. After losing the first set, Molson saved five match points in his second set to then win that in a tiebreaker and force a third set superbreaker; after almost tying up the first set, Naughton dominated his second set to send his match to a deciding breaker as well. Although neither superbreaker went our way, the heart those players showed demonstrated the best of what team tennis can be.
The team now stands at 4-6 but in a quick turnaround will play Suffield on Monday, May 15 away in Connecticut.
RESULTS
Order of finish (doubles): 3,2,1
1. Johnson/Li (DA) def. Raval/Pearson 9-8(6)
2. Dai/Tam def. Molson/Peh (DA) 8-6
3. Sparacio/Naughton (DA) def. Chinsupakul/Chen 8-3
Order of finish (singles): 5,1,3,4,6,2
1. Kiran Raval def. Brick Johnson (DA) 6-2, 6-0
2. Clark Pearson def. Tom Molson (DA) 6-4, 6-7(2), 10-6
3. David Dai def. Ethan Li (DA) 6-4, 6-1
4. Max Peh (DA) def. Arthur Chinsupakul 6-3, 3-6, 10-2
5. Mitchell Tam def. Anthony Sparacio (DA) 6-2, 6-3
6. Steven Chen def. Walker Naughton (DA) 6-4, 1-6, 13-11