Boys varsity tennis fell 4-3 at home to Belmont Hill in a nail-biting battle that came down to the wire.
Deerfield started strong, clinching the doubles point with solid wins at the #2 and #3 spots. Freshmen Charlie and Juhas and Anderson Berg established themselves as a formative duo with a quick 8-3 victory at #3, followed by an 8-4 win on court #2 by senior Tai Feng and freshman Jay Chen. With the doubles point decided, #1 Gunter Weldon and Dima Kasumov stopped their match tied at 6-6.
Taking that momentum into singles play, Deerfield went up a set on four out of the six courts. Freshman Mac Barry was the first to collect another point for DA with a convincing win at #6. But Belmont Hill showed grit and determination to fight back and level their matches even on courts 4 and 5, while Tai Feng fell at #2. With the match score at 2-1, #3 Jay Chen was battling hard as Spencer Trees and Dima Kasumov entered their third set super-tiebreakers; at the same time, #1 Gunter Weldon was trying to close out a win against a very tough opponent. Almost simultaneously, courts 1,3, and 5 finished their matches that evened the overall team score to 3-3. With all eyes turned to #4 Kasumov, the junior saved two match points before ultimately losing 10-8 in his superbreaker.
Lots of exhibition doubles and singles matches were also played, with Deerfield victorious in all but one! What a great showing from our new team.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, Deerfield showed how to compete with grace and heart, and will ultimately emerge stronger from the experience. Next up, the team will compete for the first time against St. Paul’s at home on Saturday at 3:30.
RESULTS
Doubles order of finish: 3,2
#1. Weldon/Kasumov (DA) tied Rich/Olmeda (BH) 6-6
#2. Feng/Chen (DA) def. Shah/Sandor (BH) 8-4
#3. Juhas/Berg (DA) def. Greenhill/Jones (BH) 8-3
Exhibition #4. Trees/Barry (DA) def. Ramanathan/Jacobs 8-1
Exhibition #5. Webb/Fan (DA) def. Ezedi/Nolan 8-3
Singles order of finish: 6,2,5,1,3,4
#1. Weldon (DA) def. Rich (BH) 6-2, 6-3
#2. Olmeda (BH) def. Feng (DA) 6-3, 6-0
#3. Shah (BH) def. Chen (DA) 6-4, 6-3
#4. Sandor (BH) def. Kasumov (DA) 3-6, 6-1, 10-8
#5. Greenhill (BH) def. Trees (DA) 3-6, 6-0, 10-8
#6. Barry (DA) def. Jones (BH) 6-2, 6-0
Exhibition #7. Juhas (DA) def. Ramanathan (BH) 8-1
Exhibition #8. Webb (DA) def. Jacobs (BH) 8-5
Exhibition #9. Berg (DA) def. Ezedi (BH) 8-2
Exhibition #10. Rousou (DA) def. Nolan (BH) 9-7
Exhibition #11. Fan (DA) def. Ramanathan (BH) 8-5
Exhibition #12. Ezedi (BH) led Freedman (DA) 7-4, match stopped