Boys varsity tennis fell 6-1 to Hotchkiss away on Wednesday, May 10. Though the score appears lopsided, the match was very competitive and the team competed well despite missing three of its 6 starters.
Doubles was particularly close. #1 Tom Molson/Max Peh came back from a quick 0-4 deficit and were neck-and-neck until serving for the match at 7-6 at which point they were broken and Hotchkiss was able to close them out 9-7. At #2, Anthony Sparacio/Walker Naughton were also neck-and-neck with their opponents until 5-4 when Hotchkiss went on a run to win it 8-5. #3 Ryan Diffley/Jack Willett were playing pretty dominantly and went up 7-4; kudos to their opponents for cutting down on errors and being aggressive at the net to steal the match in a tiebreaker.
Hotchkiss came out strong in singles and won the first set on each court, but the Doors weren’t ready to give in so easily. Both #4 Walker Naughton and #5 Ryan Diffley battled back to win their second sets and send their matches to deciding third set tiebreakers. (Special shout out to Walker for winning his second set tiebreaker by hitting a tweener followed up by a forehand winner). #2 Max Peh took his opponent to a tiebreaker in his second set; #3 Anthony Sparacio had a 5-0 lead in his second; and #6 Jack Willett rallied back from a tough 6-1 first set to push his opponent to a 7-5 victory in the second. As those matches finished, Diffley pulled out a 10-4 win to clinch his match, and all eyes were on Naughton as he tried to win the team’s second point but ultimately lost his super-tiebreaker 10-5.
The loss brings the team to a 4-5 record with two dual matches left to go in the season. Next up the Doors will host Exeter at home on Saturday, May 13 at noon where we’ll honor senior Jack Willett as he plays in his final home match of his Deerfield career.
RESULTS
Order of finish (doubles); 2,1,3
1. Leong/Annamaneni def. Molson/Peh (DA) 9-7
2. Tsibikov/Acevedo def. Sparacio/Naughton (DA) 8-5
3. Matanachai/Wang def. Diffley/Willett (DA) 9-8 (4)
Order of finish (singles): 1,6,2,5,3,4
1. Leong def. Tom Molson (DA) 6-2, 6-0
2. Tsibikov def. Max Peh (DA) 6-2, 7-6(5)
3. Annamaneni def. Anthony Sparacio (DA) 6-3, 7-5
4. Acevedo def. Naughton (DA) 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-5
5. Ryan Diffley (DA) def. Brown 4-6, 6-0, 10-4
6. Matanachai def. Jack Willett (DA) 6-1, 7-5