On a perfect afternoon for tennis, the Marblehead High boys tennis team (16-3, ninth seed) defeated visiting Oliver Ames (11-8, 24th seed) in a Round of 32 Division 2 state tournament match on May 31, 5-0.
Marblehead coach Elisabeth Foukal could not have been more pleased with the dominating results to begin the postseason.
“I was particularly pleased to see the second doubles team of senior co-captain Jimmy King and sophomore Leo Winocour come through with a straight-set win over a tough tandem, while first doubles won a nailbiter after losing the first set in a tiebreaker,” Foukal said. “Etan Farfel and Jayden Janock came back with vengeance to take the second set, and then with the overall match already decided in our favor, they played a 10-point super tiebreaker to determine the third set, which they won, 11-9.
Foukal added that Matthew Sherf also had an impressive comeback in third singles.
“Down 5-3 in the first set, Matthew’s serve started to click in, and he went on to win four games in a row to take the set, 7-5,” Foukal said. “Mika Garber cruised in first singles as he has done all season, while Jost Eggebrecht also handled his opponent in two sets with relative ease.”
Garber, who is only a junior, shutdown Oliver Ames’ Nick Westerbeke in first singles, 6-0, 6-0. Eggebrecht, Garber’s classmate, beat Alex Efremeidis in second singles, 6-0, 6-2. Sherf, a sophomore, completed the singles sweep with a third-singles win over Patrick Dolan, 7-5, 6-1.
Farfel and Jonock teamed up in first doubles to persevere past Brendan Meehan and Nick Wagner in first doubles, 6-7, 6-2, 11-9. King and Winocour outlasted Ben Dias and Alex Vasiloiv in second doubles, 6-4, 6-3.
In sub-varsity play, Luke Miller and Quinn Fletcher won, 7-5. Austin Bacon and Ben Zaltsman were trailing, 5-4, when the match was stopped.
The Magicians have a few days to get ready for the Belmont Marauders (12-6, eighth seed) in a Sweet 16 encounter at the Winn Brook Tennis Courts in Belmont on June 5.
The Marauders also recorded a shutout in their Round of 32 matchup against Wakefield (5-12, 25th seed), 5-0.
