Pirates second, Hun third, North and PDS tied for fifth
By: Justin Feil
If silver is the new gold, as West Windsor-Plainsboro High South second singles player Benny Gordon-Goldstein asserts, then the Pirates boys’ tennis team came out the big winners at the Mercer County Tournament on Wednesday by finishing second to Princeton High.
"We had a great tournament," said WW-P South head coach Jim Giovacchini. "We had four out of five in the finals against a top three team in the state. No one got blown out. As a team, we did well."
South finished with 29 points, five points better than third-place Hun and 11 points behind Princeton, which won every flight. The Pirates have yet to play Princeton in the regular season and could face them again in the Central Jersey Group III tournament that begins in a week.
"We know our chances are slim," said Giovacchini, whose squad is 7-0 going into today’s match at Trenton. "We’re a good team. Our neighbors happen to be a phenomenal team. But we did well. We beat Hun at every position we played them at. We’re having a great year. We had a great tournament, and I look forward to next year."
There is plenty to build on for next year’s county tournament. Brian Lee at third singles, as well as the first and second doubles teams will return next year. Giovacchini is optimistic after how well his young team played in the semifinals and finals matches Wednesday.
"We did better than last year," he said. "Last year, our third singles didn’t get anything, he finished fourth. We had four second places and a third. That’s great.
"The fact that Princeton has four seniors in their lineup and we have two, I really like our chances next year. We had a freshman and sophomore at first doubles take them to three sets. That was phenomenal."
Perhaps the match of the day came from Hun’s Andrew Maisel and West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s Brian Wong. The third singles consolation went almost two and a half hours before Maisel emerged with a 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) win.
"That was an awesome match," said Hun head coach Chris Kingston. "Every time that Brian got down, he picked his game up. That’s when you have a good tennis match, when the guy who’s down keeps coming back. It makes for some great tennis.
"Brian fought off at least two match points before they even got into the tiebreaker. Andrew had two tough matches today. He went to three sets in the semifinals too."
With Maisel’s point, the Raiders finished third for the second straight year. Hun advanced all five flights to the semifinals, but had no finalists. Four flights did win third-place medals.
"We did well on the first day," Kingston said. "I was a little disappointed with our second day. We got third place last year. We did improve a little on last year. We won another medal this year.
"But at this point, Princeton and West Windsor (South) are both a little better than us. And Princeton is obviously a little better than West Windsor."
As for West Windsor-Plainsboro North, the Knights survived a tough draw in their third year in the tournament to come in a fifth-place tie with Princeton Day and Hopewell Valley.
"The draw did not work in our favor, but we made the best of it," said WW-PN head coach Albert Paulsson. "They played as well as they could. We came out and played some teams we hadn’t seen yet and hung in there. We had a couple guys who moved on to the second round, and I thought they played well. Of the three years we’ve been here, this year was the most difficult. But you don’t have control of the draw.
"I don’t think it was a bad tournament for the team when you play such strong players in the first couple of rounds, and I think our guys were competitive with them. It raises their level and they come away knowing they played their best. Guys they lost to ended up in the finals."
And in all but one final, that paired WW-P South against Princeton. The Little Tigers held their No. 1 seeds and held off the Pirates’ two No. 1 seeds for the sweep.
"I thought we proved we could hang," Giovacchini said. "A lot of people thought they would embarrass us, but our guys did really well. Everyone did well."
Silver it may be, but the Pirates were as good as gold at times. They just fell to a more polished Princeton team.

