Beginning a new week against St. Mary’s of Lynn on May 15, the Marblehead High boys tennis team (10-0 in the Northeastern Conference, 13-3 overall) shut down its non-league counterparts, 5-0.
Coach Elisabeth Foukal rested her regulars, but their replacements were quite effective to maintain the team’s winning ways.
“I was really proud of our singles players, who had to play their best to beat their solid counterparts from St. Mary’s,” Foukal said.
Sophomore Jayden Janock was not expecting to play, but as a result of a last-minute illness he stepped into the No. 1 spot to play a smart, balanced game, winning it going away against senior Mark Wood, 6-1, 6-4.
Sophomore Luke Miller played a hard-fought second singles match, ultimately beating sophomore Thomas Shea in a third-set tiebreaker, 6-4, 3-6, 11-9.
Senior co-captain Jack Wykes then completed the singles sweep with a solid win over senior Gif L’Italian in third singles, 6-1, 6-1.
The first doubles team of sophomores Austin Bacon and Leo Winocour took care of seniors Chris Lutchman and Brendan Zollo, 6-2, 6-0.
Sophomores Ben Zaltsman and Quinn Fletcher upended seniors Dan Pimentel and Rowan Sherpwell in second doubles, 6-1, 6-1.
Morris Rapaport, who played on the Lynn English tennis team in 1941, attended the St. Mary’s match. The team’s sportsmanship award is given in his honor every year at the banquet following the season.
The Marblehead boys went right back to work the next day to defeat Salem, 5-0, despite resting six of their top seven players, reinforcing once again the considerable depth on this year’s roster.
Sophomore Etan Farfel beat senior Jackson Werten, 6-0, 6-0 in first singles. Sophomore Anthony Vizy then topped senior Matt Quikennan in second singles, 6-0, 6-1. Senior co-captain Jack Wykes maintained the same winning script against Dewa Trisna in third singles, 6-0, 6-1.
Sophomores Bacon and Winocour teamed up to defeat Mark Quikennan and Brooks Workman in first doubles, 6-0, 6-0.
Sophomores Quinn Fletcher and Ben Zaltsman closed out another varsity win, defeating Rillan Workman and Will Towne in second doubles, 6-0, 6-1.
The Magicians, playing their third consecutive match in as many days, beat a formidable Masco team at home, 5-0. It was Senior Day, and co-captains Jimmy King and Jack Wykes were honored before the Chieftains match for their contributions to the program the last four years. They then teamed up to prevail in second doubles that went to a third set tiebreaker.
Junior Mika Garber topped Masco’s Mark Trull in first singles, 6-0, 6-0. Junior Jost Eggebrecht won a straight-set second singles match against senior Kyle Trull, 6-0, 6-1. Farfel experienced similar results against junior Jack Eaton in third singles, 6-1, 6-0.
Sophomores Janock and Vizy were victorious over Justin Sagnior and Parker Kurtz in first doubles, 6-3, 6-0. The aforementioned King and Wykes persevered against Kai Hird and Carson Bakunas in second doubles, 3-6, 6-2, 10-8.
In sub-varsity play, Fletcher lost a singles match, 6-2. Bacon and Winocour were leading 5-1 when the match was abruptly stopped, with twilight hovering over the courts.
Foukal’s squad then closed out a busy week on the road at Brookline, where they lost to the non-league Warriors, 5-0.
Garber lost to Devin Nahata in first singles, 8-2. Eggebrecht fell to Peter Khudyakov in second singles, 8-0. It was more of the same in third singles, when Farfel dropped an 8-2 decision to Owen Esker.
Janock and Vizy were defeated by Ravin and Kiran Bhatia in first doubles, 8-0. King and Winocour did the same against Grady Ames and Anish Shrivastana, 8-0.
In sub-varsity play, Bacon and Zaltsman lost, 8-0, while Fletcher was on the short end of a competitive singles match, 8-3.
Luke Roth and Quinn Sullivan recorded the lone Marblehead win among all three levels on this day in a JV doubles match, 6-3.
Graydon Waller and Nico Altonian (6-2), T.J. Kelly and Jeffrey Kucharsky (6-5), Evan Murtagh and Adam Loughlin (6-2), Travis Ehrhardt and John Bender (6-1) and Connor Dunleavy and Nico Altonian (6-0) were beaten in their JV doubles matches.
Marblehead is wrapping up the regular season this week with three more non-league road encounters against Manchester-Essex (May 22), Hamilton-Wenham (May 23) and Boston College High School (May 24).
The locals, ranked eighth out of 51 Division 2 teams in the latest power rankings, will begin the postseason the following week.
