Hopkins Defeats Loomis 5-2

After a rain-out for practice on Friday, and a forecast for non-stop rain through the weekend, we were all pleasantly surprised to be able to travel up to Windsor to play at the lovely new junior varsity tennis complex at the Loomis Chafee School. Under a slightly overcast sky and with no breeze, both teams eagerly took to the courts this afternoon to play in 60-degree temperatures. The doubles matches, all contested over 8-game pro sets, took to the courts first, and the Hilltoppers quickly found their opponents to be challenging. At #1, Captain Luca Breahna and Anand Choudary took on adversaries who were very strong at net. Luca and Anand employed many strategies that helped them to keep the contest close, but ultimately the aggressive play of Loomis claimed the set and match 8-5. Our strong and steady team of Warren Jaffee and Jack Kealey were surprised at the fight that they encountered in their opponents at #2. Although Jack and Warren had an early lead, Loomis’s team of Boutry and Partridge stormed back with strong passing shots and put-away volleys. Our dynamic duo fought valiantly but ultimately fell 8-5 to the charging Pelicans. Although Hopkins lost the doubles point, we did have a bright moment in the competition. Our #3 team, consisting of ninth-grader Matthew Booth and seventh-grader Kian Ahmadi, succeeded in holding serve throughout their match against their opponents. Loomis also held serve until Kian and Matthew were able to break at the very end, to grind their way to an 8-6 win. Excellent work, guys! Our singles players also became embroiled in close contests. First off the court was seventh-grader Antonio Romeo, who was able to move Loomis’s W. Natcharian around the court and force errors with powerful ground strokes. Antonio’s quick victory at #5 tied up our match vs. Loomis. Another win for Antonio, 6-1, 6-1. Good job, Antonio! Our #4 David Verdu also chalked up a definitive victory vs. AJ Leshem, 6-1, 6-2, but the score does not reflect the many, many long deuce games that these two played in the second set. Recognizing that his opponent was going to put up a strong fight, David held fast to the strategy of moving his opponent from side to side, varying speed and spin all the while. This victory might be David’s best of the year so far. Loomis countered these first singles victories with a win of their own against our #1 Cole Markham. Cole’s opponent, Aarman Pannu took an early lead with his powerful and well-placed forehand drives, which moved Cole and frustrated our tri-captain’s rushes to net. Pannu’s strong return neutralized Cole’s serves as well. Loomis returned the match to a tie at 2-2 with Pannu’s victory over Cole, 6-2, 6-1. Playing at #6, ninth-grader Andrew Bordea also had his hands full with the extremely consistent Henry Wang of Loomis. Andrew dug in and relied on the consistent shots of his own in order to prevent his opponent from tying up the match in the second set. Congratulations to Andrew for earning his first singles point for Hopkins! Andrew’s hard-earned “W” gave Hopkins a 3-2 lead with two close matches left to finish. Our Goats all watched with 'bated breath from the lovely ramada between the courts on which captains Luca Breahna (#3) and Justin Saffan (#2) played their tough opponents. Justin took an early lead with serve-and-volley play. He won the first set 6-1 and managed to hold serve twice in the second before his opponent mounted a charge against his attack. Justin then had to switch tactics and move to a more conservative game plan, as his opponent began to hit his powerful forehand drives into the court. Justin and Carey traded many deuce points, with numerous overheads, passing shots and winning lobs. Our southpaw’s slice backhand truly was an asset this afternoon, because he used it to cut off the powerful forehands of Carey and to send the returns deep and with good angles. Justin’s ultimate 6-1, 6-3 win would be the last match to come off the court. Marvelous, smart play on the part our tri-captain here. Just seconds before Justin closed out his match, Luca Breahna finished his #3 match to clinch the title for Hopkins, and he did so in style. The only two players to repeat in our interscholastic contest, Luca Breahna and Loomis’s Brett Dosnick returned to the opposite sides of the net from each other for singles shortly after they had concluded their doubles duel. Dosnick stunned our captain with a 3-0 lead, but in doing so he spurred our versatile junior tri-captain on to try out different shot-making strategies. Luca climbed back into the first set and although he lost it 4-6, it was clear that the momentum had changed so that he had gotten Dosnick on the defensive. The tables completely turned in favor of Luca during set two, since Luca had been able to find ways to move Dosnick from side to side, thereby forcing him to make errors. After a 6-3 win in set two, Luca kept the pedal to the metal in the tiebreaker to 10, which he closed out 10-6 after taking an early lead. Luca’s singles record for the season is now an impressive 6-1, with a 2-0 tiebreaker record. Thanks for stepping up to play twice, Luca. Awesome job. Coaches Atlee and Burton are very proud of the progress we’ve made as a team at mid-season! We look forward to our match at home this Wednesday vs. Rye CDS. YEAH HOP!