Hun wins MCT tennis title

Raiders sweep all five flights for second straight crown

By: Justin Feil
   Last year, the Hun School girls’ tennis team took home the Mercer County Tournament team title, but left the individual flight championships for other schools. Wednesday, the Raiders weren’t so nice.
   They didn’t share. They also didn’t mess around. Hun lost only one set the entire tournament to sweep the MCT title with a perfect score of 40 points after winning all five flights. Princeton Day School finished second with 21 points.
   "It’s twice as good," said Hun’s Angela DiPastina, who dropped the first set of the first singles title to West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s Victoria Vaynberg before taking the next two. "We got both the medals and the trophy this year. We’ve worked hard to get it this year. This is what we wanted to do. We wanted revenge."
   Even though the Raiders won the team title last year by just advancing everyone to the finals, there wasn’t the same feeling of accomplishment that they took from this year’s clean sweep.
   "I had hoped they could do this," Hun head coach Joan Nuse said of winning every flight. "I didn’t really expect it though. They all had tough matches for finals. I knew they had to play well to win.
   "We kind of backed into it last year. This time, no one can say we shouldn’t have won it."
   It was the fifth MCT for Hun, and the second time the Raiders have repeated. They also won in 1994 and 1995, in addition to 1988. With Hun losing just two seniors, it could be a while before anyone else wins again.
   "I don’t know if I’d go that far," Nuse said, "but I don’t know if we can move up from this. I’m glad they all did it together. That means no one is left out."
   One by one, in just a 20-minute span, all five flights were surgically wrapped up. And for each of the Hun players who won, it was their first-ever county title. The last time Hun won a county flight championship was 1997, when Jennie Breo and Meagan Merritt won the first doubles title.
   Wednesday, the first doubles team of Victoria Kloss — playing in her third MCT final — and Nina Licciardello won first, then the second doubles team of Abby Kazhdan and Ann Wright preceded DiPastina’s comeback win with a two-set win over Stuart Country Day’s Suzanne George and Megan Brett. DiPastina’s freshman sister, Lucy, won a MCT title at third singles in her first try and Erica Wood polished off the sweep when she put away Princeton Day School’s Vidya Vepuri.
   "This team is right up there, similar to my ’93 team," Nuse said. "They weren’t at full strength at counties but they won states. This team is right up there with them."
   The closest match of the day for Hun belonged to the elder DiPastina, who avenged two losses this summer in USTA tournaments to Vaynberg. Wednesday, she was able to take advantage of Vaynberg’s underhand serve due to a back injury to recover from losing the first set, 6-3, to take the next two, 6-1, 6-3.
   "I lost two in a row to her in USTA," said DiPastina, who suffered a stress fracture this summer. "She’s good. She’s tough. She’s one of the only ones who would stay out there when they’re not feeling well and with an injury. Most area players would chicken out and pull out. Victoria’s not like that. She wants to go down in flames."
   And while Vaynberg couldn’t serve overhand or hit an overhead lob shot, her groundstrokes were enough to send her past every other first singles player in the tournament, including Princeton Day School’s Alexis Jacobi, who she topped in the semifinals. DiPastina defeated WW-P North freshman Jacqueline Wong to reach the finals.
   "I got really tight in the beginning of the final," DiPastina said. "Once I lost the first set, I just knew I needed to go for it. I knew it could only get better."
   It did as she became the first person to solve Vaynberg all tournament as she avenged her loss in the finals last year to then-first singles player Celene Chang from South.
   "It’s always a good win," Nuse said. "Victoria’s an outstanding player. Angela really wanted it."
   "We all really wanted to get revenge," DiPastina said. "I didn’t think we were going to get a clean sweep. I knew Erica was going to win. She was seeded fourth and she didn’t feel the pressure. She pretty much cleaned everyone up."
   It was something the Raiders were looking to do when every one of them reached the finals, just like last year. But this time, with just two new additions to the lineup — Lucy DiPastina at third singles and Ann Wright at second doubles — every Hun player came through.
   "I thought we gained from last year," Angela DiPastina said. "When we discussed it beforehand, no one said they were nervous. Lucy wanted to do well her first time. And instead of watching she was out here playing. I was so happy for her."
   As for the first singles title, DiPastina has two more years to try to defend it, against the likes of Vaynberg, Jacobi and Wong, all who will return.
   "It meant a lot," DiPastina said of her first county crown, "but it would have meant more if Victoria was well, and if Alexis was playing better. It really could have gone either way."
   But DiPastina, like the rest of her Hun teammates, made sure it didn’t. They made sure that every flight went their way, that the team trophy again returned with them and that every single gold medal went home with Hun players.