Tennis team rallies past Hun
By: Justin Feil
The West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys’ tennis team used a familiar strategy to win its third straight Mercer County Tournament on Thursday.
The Pirates trailed Hun by four points entering the semifinals at Mercer County Park, but captured the bottom four flights for the second straight year in three cases beating the Raiders to earn a four-point win.
"We were behind the eight ball and came through like champions," said Pirates head coach Jim Giovacchini. "We had to win out and still had the possibility of only tying. We were hoping for some other teams to help us out but we didn’t get much help. We had to beat the people ahead of us. It was amazing. The guys really stepped up."
The only other team to be represented in gold was Princeton Day School, after David Holland fought off second-set leg cramps to beat Steinert’s Jon Yu. Holland lost in the finals last year but the sophomore claimed his first career MCT title Thursday after beating Hun’s Lance Goulbourne in the semifinals and taking care of Yu in the finals. Holland helped the Panthers finish fifth in the team standings.
"David’s match experience really carried him through that," said PDS head coach Rome Campbell. "Having been there before, and playing a high caliber of players that he has been, that preparation came in handy."
Princeton High tied Hopewell Valley for third overall with 18 points. WW-P South and Hun fought for the team title and it wasn’t decided until the Pirates’ Leland Richardson defeated Hun’s Chris Martin, 6-1, 6-0, to give them 32 total points. Hun finished with 27 points and could have tied WW-P South for the title if any of its finalists had won or if it had been able to claim another third-place point.
"I think we’re the second-best team in the tournament," said Hun head coach Chris Kingston. "I think West Windsor is clearly the best. This is the best we’ve done since I’ve been here. It hurts a little more since we were winning after the first day. But you’re not going to win the tournament, I think, if you don’t win any individual flights.
"If we won an individual flight, it would have been very close. If we won one of the three (flights against South) we had a chance of maybe sharing. Then our first doubles would have had to win (its consolation match)."
The Pirates made sure that Hun couldn’t catch them by going a perfect 3-for-3 in head-to-head matches Thursday. They were 4-for-4 on the day. Richardson picked up gold along with second singles’ Steven Fernandez, the first doubles team of Dennis Tuan and Ben Cornfeld and the second doubles team of Piray Sekar and Stewart Fernandez.
"After Day One, we were losing to Hun," Richardson said. "Coach calculated everything we needed to do to win.
"It’s a good feeling to get it. It’s even better when you have this competition."
The competition from the Raiders made the Pirates elevate their game. First done were Sekar and Fernandez, who breezed to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Hun’s Ren Gates and Jack Barrett at second doubles.
"I was feeling nervous going into it," Sekar said of his first MCT. "I thought Stewart and I played well. It was all good in the end. We knew going into it we had to come through. Hun was our biggest competition at the MCT. We had to come out strong.
"We didn’t make many errors. Stewart was serving well and we were able to break them pretty easily."
Tuan and Cornfeld captured a 6-1, 6-3 win over PHS’ Chris Nesi and Aaron Maltby for the first doubles crown and the Pirates were creeping closer to the team title.
"I was pretty confident," said Tuan, who was one of two flight winners at doubles two years ago when the Pirates won the MCT. "We were playing really well. We just played Princeton the other day so we felt confident going into the finals.
"It means a lot to me (to win)," he added. "I wasn’t here last year to be a part of it. It’s a great ending to my tennis season."
When Steven Fernandez captured the second singles title with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Hun’s Wilder Sampson, the Pirates had enough points to feel a little more comfortable that their third title was in hand. Fernandez made the big jump from second doubles, where he won with his brother Stewart at last year’s MCT, to second singles.
"It’s a big difference," Fernandez said. "You rely on someone at doubles and you rely on yourself at second singles. I’m just happy I won both times.
"I felt a lot of pressure knowing I had to do it. I like pressure. It made me play a little better."
The first day was highlighted by Hun upsets in first and second singles play that enabled the Raiders to be the only team with five flights reaching the semis. Both Goulbourne and Sampson were unseeded.
Trailing the Raiders after the first two rounds were the Pirates, Hopewell Valley and PHS, all tied with 16 points after advancing four flights apiece to the semifinals.
The Little Tigers’ second singles David Zheng fought through a tough first-round match and breezed in the second round, Maltby and Nesi did the opposite to reach the first doubles semifinals and Bergman and Silver were untested at second doubles.
"There were some ups and downs," said PHS head coach Sarah Heyman. "We finished in the top overall. That’s always a nice thing. Of course, it would have been nice to have more people in the finals. We had a couple tough matches in the semis today. But it was good Chris and Aaron made it to the finals. They faced a tough opponent and weren’t quite on their games."
Holland and third singles’ Dylan Dreher were the lone PDS players to reach the semifinals with Holland dropping just one game in two matches and Dreher winning a three-set match over PHS’ Ben Weingarten.
An injury to West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s first singles forced its entire lineup to move up for the MCT. Four of their flights went head to head with the Little Tigers, with second-singles Ed Chang coming closest to a win when he lost, 7-6, 6-4, to second-seeded Zheng.

