Taft Defeats Hopkins in Season Finael

The Boys’ JV team assembled on the north courts for our final match of a great season. It was quite warm and sunny, with no real breeze—an ideal setting for tennis.

Doubles play began in the first wave, with team “Fire and Ice” at center stage for the last time of their JV career. Luca and Justin started out quite strong by holding serve and forcing their opponents off the net. Unfortunately Taft began to muster strength and consistency which kept our captains scrambling to return well-placed spin shots. Luca and Justin went down swinging 2-8.

 

#2 Ty Eveland and Connor Davis also began with spirited play. Both held serve and kept their opponents from hitting winners for most of the match. Ty’s powerful ground strokes forced many errors from Taft’s Ip and Cheng, and Connor was right there to put away the set-ups. Ip and Cheng fought back, however, and were able to closer out this contest 8-5.

 

At #3, Andrew Bordea and Matthew Booth struggled from the get-go against Taft despite working well as a team. Andrew and Matthew faced tough passing shots and overheads throughout the match to fall 4-8.

 

Warren Jaffe and Jack Kealey, our dynamic duo, played at #4 today, where they fought throughout the match to stay close against Taft. The match stayed on serve for a long time before our heroes found themselves down a break, only to tie things up once again. Finally the match entered a tiebreaker, where the match also remained close until Taft eked out a victory 7-5. Our boys should be commended for their hard work today and all season.

 

Singles play started shortly after doubles ended as Taft had brought nine players versus our twelve. Justin faced off against his doubles opponent Coleman Jentings, who had a decent all-court game that frustrated Justin’s chip-and-charge strategy. Justin held serve twice but otherwise struggled and ultimately lost 2-8 to the Taft tenista.

 

At #6, Anand Choudary had begun his singles game alongside the four doubles contests, but played a marathon of a match that started with him fighting to stay close to an opponent who had taken an early lead. Anand changed his strategy to include deeper shots to the corners, which prevented his opponent from coming to the net and also forced many errors. The match knotted up at 7-7 and Anand took an early lead in the tiebreaker, but Taft’s player stormed back from 3-6 to win it 9-7. A tough loss for our steady southpaw today.

 

Captain Luca Breahna fought off some shoulder discomfort early in his singles bout to recover from a 3-0 deficit. Luca kept the match close from that point but was unable to take the lead against Taft’s Kevin Lian, who held his serve to win 8-6. Although he lost his match, Luca’s play was solid and displayed just how much he has improved as a shotmaker and court strategist this season.

 

Sophomore David Verdu was overwhelmed by Taft’s Jonathan Cheng, who moved our #4 player around the court and forced many errors. David found himself down several breaks but kept fighting. Unfortunately for Hopkins, Cheng was the stronger player today. We’ll get ‘em next year, David.

 

Our powerful seventh grader Antonio Romeo came out ready to go today, but struggled early on with shot-making. Taft’s Jon Ip seemed to be a just a little more consistent during the first few games. Antonio decided to adjust his strategy to move Ip around the court and keep him back with deeper topspin shots, a plan that brought Antonio back into the match for a time until Ip was able to raise his own game to prevent Antonio from hitting winners. Taft claimed the match 8-3.

 

Playing his final JV match for us, Cole Markham had an inauspicious start to the day since he was unable to grip his racket without it hurting the right thumb he jammed playing basketball the day before. But time has shown long ago that one must beware the injured player, and especially so one who is looking to conclude his JV career in a blaze of glory. Cole proved that prehensile hands, once thought to be so essential to our advancement as beings on this planet, really aren’t as necessary to hitting solid serves and ground strokes as previously thought. Cole overcame an early deficit once he figured out how to play without full use of his thumb, but his opponent was not about to fold, either. The two were locked in battle until it was 6-6, when Taft’s Philips was up 40-0 and in solid control. Somehow our wily player stabbed back a few overheads and was able to get back in the game to win it, and then to serve up a win for his final JV match 8-6. What an exciting way to conclude his career with us. Way to go, Cole!

 

Coaches Atlee and Burton are very pleased with the exciting 2019 JV season. Everyone improved so much and gave 100% in each match. We hope that our players enroll in tournaments in the off-season to continue to improve as competitors and wish all of our Hilltoppers future success in tennis and beyond!

 

GO HOP!