Mustangs continue to impress in their ‘rebuilding season’

Brick Memorial’s boys tennis team has some important matches in the days ahead as it looks to stay above .500 and qualify for the NJSIAA Tournament by the cutoff early next month.

Despite suffering a pair of 4-1 losses to Toms River North and Toms River East after opening last week’s action with a 5-0 blitz of Toms River South, the Mustangs still hold a surprising 5-3 record in a rebuilding season.

One satisfaction in the tough week is that No. 1 singles player Colin Przybylowski, who is 5-3, avenged an earlier loss to the Toms River North No. 1 singles player. But the first doubles team of Eric Mindyk and Matt Stillwagon suffered its first loss of the season. That first doubles team beat the Toms River North pair in three sets the previous time they played, also a 4-1 victory for the Toms River team.

Coach Ron Gerlufsen said Przybylowski also played well in a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Toms River East’s Alex Zuk, a two-time Ocean County champion headed to the William & Mary.

The match featured some long, well-contested points for Przybylowski, who moves up from playing third singles a year ago.

Nick Cittadino is 4-4 in second singles and Mike Brown is 6-2 in third singles.