Boys varsity tennis suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday, falling to Andover 6-1 on the road. The team now stands at 5-1 on the year.
Playing in blustery conditions, #2 Feng/Naughton went down early to a talented duo while the doubles went back and forth on courts #1 and #3 until Andover pulled ahead 5-4 against Sparacio/McMahon and never looked back. With the doubles point clinched for the Big Blue, all eyes were on Weldon/Li as they broke to lead 7-6, but ultimately fell 9-7. It’s the first time all season that Deerfield dropped the doubles point.
The Doors took to their singles courts ready for revenge against the reigning New England champs. While #3 Anthony Sparacio battled a close first set, #1 Gunter Weldon and #6 Tommy McMahon won their first sets as the remaining courts lost theirs. Andover was able to clinch the match with victories on courts 3-5; shortly after, McMahon pulled out Deerfield’s lone point on the day with a gutsy 10-8 victory in his third set superbreaker. With just the top two courts remaining in play, #1 Weldon then lost his third set superbreaker while #2 Ethan Li, despite going up a break late in the second set, lost as well.
With just one exhibition match available, senior Luka Kokosadze battled long and hard to pull out a victory at the #7 spot.
It was a great day of competition and team spirit; the team will look to recover with a matchup against local Franklin County foe NMH in Gill, MA at 2pm on Wednesday, April 23.
Results
Doubles order of finish: 2,3,1
#1. Burke/Pletka (A) def. Weldon/Li (DA) 9-7
#2. Shin/Shen (A) def. Feng/Naughton (DA) 8-2
#3. Zheng/Niu (A) def. Sparacio/McMahon (DA) 8-4
Singles order of finish: 5,3,4,6,1,2
#1. Chase Burke (A) def. Gunter Weldon (DA) 4-6, 6-2, 10-6
#2. Jacob Pletka (A) def. Ethan Li (DA) 6-3, 7-5
#3. Ben Shin (A) def. Anthony Sparacio (DA) 6-4, 6-1
#4. Kevin Niu (A) def. Tai Feng (DA) 6-1, 6-2
#5. Avery Zhang (A) def. Walker Naughton (DA) 6-1, 6-0
#6. Tommy McMahon (DA) def. Tianyi Gu (A) 6-2, 3-6, 10-8
#7. (Exhibition) Luka Kokosadze (DA) def. George Richardson (A) 6-2, 7-6(10)