New England Prep School Boys Tennis Qtr. Finals

From Coach Bill Ewen:

The Hopkins boys' tennis team travelled all the way to St. Paul's School in Concord, NH, for its quarter final contest in the New England Prep School Team Championships against Thayer Academy of the Boston area on the morning of Saturday, May 15th. The match took place in 90 degree weather, and took over 4 hours to complete, as two strong teams waged a battle of attrition against one another. Thayer struck first, winning two of the doubles contests, then the #5 singles match. Hopkins fought back as our #1 player Alex Zackheim pulled off an upset victory in straight sets. The next match done proved to be a Thayer victory at #4 in two fiercely contested sets. This left Thayer Academy up 3--1 with 3 matches left. Phil Bernasek at Hopkins won the first set at #3, only to lose a second set tiebreaker, and go ahead in the 3rd set. Dan Spinelli lost the first set at #6, but fought back to win the second set, and take an early lead in the 3rd set. Tri--captain Lenny Kolstad became involved in a titanic struggle, finally dropping a first set tiebreaker by an 11--9 score. He then fell behind 4--1 in the second set, only to come back to lead 5--4 before that set too went to a deciding tiebreaker. Unfortunately for Lenny and for Hopkins, that tiebreaker also wound up going to his Thayer opponent. Hopkins should be very proud of the courage and perseverance shown by the Hopkins team members in this tournament contest.