It was a good day at the office for boys varsity tennis as the team took down Westminster on the road on Wednesday, May 1. The team is now 5-3 with four regular season dual matches remaining.
DA clinched the doubles point with two solid wins at #1 (Ethan Li/Gunter Weldon) and #3 (Tai Feng/Walker Naughton); both teams served and returned well and were dominant at the net. #2 Tom Molson/Anthony Sparacio had opportunities but ultimately made too many errors and lost their proset 8-5.
Molson was forced to sit out the singles as he’s nursing an injury, but the second half of the lineup rose to the challenge of playing up a spot as the Doors won 5 of the 6 singles matchups. Playing in the lineup only in his second dual match, #6 junior Christian Capella was relentless in his 6-0, 6-0 victory; #5 Walker Naughton and #2 Gunter Weldon also fought off their opponents with straight set wins. #1 Ethan Li played one of his best matches this season to take down a very solid player, and despite his straight set victory, his was, once again, the last match remaining which goes to show how much of a battle the match was despite the 6-3, 6-2 scoreline.
Playing at #4, junior Anthony Sparacio started strong by quickly winning his first set 6-1, but credit to his opponent for battling back and putting many more balls in the court to win the second set 6-4. Sparacio knew he needed to change the momentum heading into the superbreaker; however, he quickly found himself down 4-0 before fighting back to 4-4 with big forehands. Olson pulled away again to go up 8-4, and Sparacio came back to 8-6 before ultimately falling 10-6.
#3 Tai Feng found himself in a third set superbreaker as well, initially losing his first set 6-4 but then fighting back with steady, penetrating groundstrokes and crafty dropshots to win the second set handily 6-1. Ready to play the same game that won him the second set, Feng went up 8-2 in the superbreaker before Hibbard battled back to 8-6. Feng’s determination was too strong though, and he won the next two points to close out the match 10-6.
DA also swept all of the exhibition matches in both singles and doubles. The duo of Capella/Blix Salz didn’t drop a game in their doubles proset victory; Salz, Ryan Diffley, and Luka Kokosadze were also dominant in their 8-1, 8-0, and 8-4 wins respectively.
Next up the team will host Choate at home on Saturday, May 4 at 3:30pm.
Results
Doubles order of finish: 3,1,2
#1. Li/Weldon (DA) def. Suit/Hibbard (W) 8-3
#2. Whiting/Olson (W) def. Molson/Sparacio (DA) 8-5
#3. Feng/Naughton (DA) def. Hocking/Henry 8-1
Exhibition: Capella/Salz (DA) def. Chen/Kocatas 8-0
Singles order of finish: 6,5,2,4,3,1
#1. Ethan Li (DA) def. David Suit (W) 6-3, 6-2
#2. Gunter Weldon (DA) def. Will Whiting (W) 6-1, 6-4
#3. Tai Feng (DA) def. Liam Hibbard (W) 4-6, 6-1, 10-6
#4. Hugh Olson (W) def. Anthony Sparacio (DA) 1-6, 6-4, 10-6
#5. Walker Naughton (DA) def. Finn Hocking (W) 6-3, 6-1
#6. Christian Capella (DA) def. Alex Chen (W) 6-0, 6-0
Exhibition: Blix Salz (DA) def. Will Henry (W) 8-1
Exhibition: Ryan DIffley (DA) def. Arshaan Shah 8-0
Exhibtion: Luka Kokosadze (DA) def. Arshaan Shah 8-4