Boys varsity tennis defeated St. Paul’s 4-3 at home on Saturday, 4/4. It was the first meeting between these schools, and it was a real nailbiter!
Deerfield once again showcased their strong doubles play with wins on all three courts. While #1 Weldon/Kasumov finished fairly quickly, #2 Feng/Chen and #3 Juhas/Berg were battling hard to clinch the doubles point for the Doors. As the freshmen duo at #3 closed out their match 9-7 to do just that, #2 Feng/Chen soon finished with an 8-6 win.
After the close doubles competition, the team knew that singles was only going to get harder. St. Paul’s came out strong, taking the first set on courts 3 through 6; only DA’s top two players secured first set wins for the Doors. That didn’t stop the battling, however. As temperatures cooled and the wind picked up, the match evened at two apiece with only courts #2 (Tai Feng), #3 (Dima Kasumov), and #4 (Mac Barry) remaining. #4 Barry had stormed back in his match, winning the second set at love and entering a third set superbreaker. Feng had won a close first set and seemed poised to close out his match with a 5-2 lead in the second, but his determined opponent forced a second set tiebreaker. While those two competed next to each other, Kasumov was working hard to stay in his match after dropping a tight first set and forcing a second set tiebreaker.
The excitement only continued from there. Barry quickly gained a 6-1 one lead in his superbreaker, but his opponent never gave up and came back to 6-5. Barry showed a lot of nerve and heart to close out his superbreaker 10-7, putting Deerfield up 3-2 and needing only one more win to clinch the match. Soon after, both Feng and Kasumov lost their second set tiebreakers, leveling the match at 3-3 and putting it all in the hands of the senior Tai Feng on court 2.
Feng showed his experience, battling through nerves to keep hitting through the ball and patiently building each point. Despite finding himself down by two points multiple times in the superbreaker, Feng never gave up. On his second match point, Feng closed out the breaker, giving Deerfield their first dual match win of the season.
St. Paul’s had a large squad as well, and many exhibition matches were played. Matches were pretty evenly split throughout the doubles and singles lineups; it was a great day of competition across the board.
After all of the excitement, Deerfield will get to rest this Wednesday, but will then play back-to-back matches on Friday evening at Groton and again at home on Saturday against Taft.
RESULTS
Doubles order of finish: 1, 3, 2
#1. Weldon/Kasumov (DA) def. Morton/Buchan (SPS) 8-2
#2. Feng/Chen (DA) def. Rubiralta/Robins (SPS) 8-6
#3. Juhas/Berg (DA) def. Ding/Hands (SPS) 9-7
Exhibition #4. Trees/Barry (DA) def. Gallien/Duncan (SPS) 8-6
Exhibition #5. Webb/Fan (DA) def. Hori/Bauta (SPS) 8-1
Exhibition #6. Tanglertsumphan/Thiagarajan (SPS) def. Rousou/Freedman (DA) 8-6
Singles order of finish: 6,1,5,4,3,2
#1. Weldon (DA) def. Morton (SPS) 6-4, 6-2
#2. Feng (DA) def. Gallien (SPS) 7-6(5), 7-6(4), 10-8
#3. Robins (SPS) def. Kasumov (DA) 6-4, 7-6(6)
#4. Barry (DA) def. Rubiralta (SPS) 2-6, 6-0, 10-7
#5. Hands (SPS) def. Juhas (DA) 6-2, 6-3
#6. Ding (SPS) def. Webb (DA) 6-0, 6-0
Exhibition #7. Buchan (SPS) def. Trees (DA) 6-2, 6-1
Exhibition #8. Berg (DA) def. Hori (SPS) 6-1, 6-3
Exhibition #9. Bauta (SPS) def. Rousou (DA) 6-4, 6-4
Exhibition #10. Fan (DA) def. Duncan (SPS) 6-2, 6-2
Exhibition #11. Thiagarajan (SPS) def. Freedman (DA) 4-6, 6-3, 10-7