Boys varsity tennis continued their winning streak on Saturday, defeating Taft 7-0 in Waterbury, CT. After being ousted in New England last year by the Rhinos, Deerfield was ready for revenge. Though the score line was lopsided, the competition was anything but.
Playing indoors on super fast courts, it took the Doors a few games to get used to the conditions; soon however, the team settled in and once again swept all three doubles contests. #1 Li/Weldon and #2 Feng/Naughton clinched the doubles point, quickly followed by another win for #3 Sparacio/McMahon. DA also won the exhibition doubles match, with Kasumov/Kokosadze cruising to an 8-1 victory.
With only four matches able to play at a time, #1-4 singles then took to the courts. #1 Gunter Weldon quickly went up 5-0 in his first set while everyone else was engrossed in battle. As #2 Ethan Li and #3 Anthony Sparacio dropped their first sets and #4 Tai Feng found himself in a first set tiebreaker, Weldon’s opponent was battling back to 5-3 in their first set. Both Weldon and Feng were able to win their first sets and the fight continued. Li showcased his competitive drive with a quick 6-1 win in his second set, and just as he closed out his match in a superbreaker, Weldon also secured a straight-set win putting the Doors up 3-0 and needing only one more win to clinch the match.
As #5 Walker Naughton and #6 Tommy McMahon went on court to begin their matches, Sparacio showed determination and grit to pull out his second set 6-4. It was back and forth in his deciding superbreaker until he barged ahead at the end and won it 10-7, securing the fourth straight dual match win for Deerfield. Though the pressure was off, Naughton and McMahon’s opponents weren’t ready to give up; both boys had to fight hard for their victories.
In exhibition singles, sophomores #7 Spencer Trees and #8 Dima Kasumov continued the clean sweep of the Rhinos: Trees with a hard-fought third set tiebreaker victory, Kasumov in straight sets.
The Doors will look to continue their perfect season against Loomis Chaffee at home on Wednesday, April 16 at 3pm.
Results
Doubles order of finish: 1,2,3
#1. Weldon/Li (DA) def. Seetso/Casserly (T) 8-4
#2. Feng/Naughton (DA) def. McNamara/Zhang (T) 8-2
#3. Sparacio/McMahon (DA) def. Coles/Seth (T) 8-4
#4. Kasumov/Kokosadze (DA) def. Comfort/Chen (T) 8-1
Singles order of finish: 2,1,3,4,5,6
#1. Gunter Weldon (DA) def. Martin Seetso (T) 6-3, 6-4
#2. Ethan Li (DA) def. Kaiel Casserly (T) 4-6, 6-1, 10-3
#3. Anthony Sparacio (DA) def. Owen Coles (T) 3-6, 6-4, 10-7
#4. Tai Feng (DA) def. Trevor McNamara (T) 7-6(5), 6-4
#5. Walker Naughton (DA) def. Harow Seth (T) 6-2, 2-6, 10-7
#6. Tommy McMahon (DA) def. Steven Zhang (T) 7-5, 6-3
#7. (Exhibition) Spencer Trees (DA) def. JJ Comfort (T) 6-2, 2-6, 10-8
#8. (Exhibition) Dima Kasumov (DA) def. Carson Chen (T) 6-3, 6-2