BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer
SCOTT PILLING staff Kevin Sun is one of the returning players who hopes to lead the FreeholdBorough tennis team to another successful season on the courts this spring. Order could be restored in Shore Conference A North Division boys tennis.
Marlboro High School, the division’s standard-bearer, appears poised to regain its position atop the standings thanks to an unexpected turn of events
Before practice began last month, coach Dave Kretzmer wasn’t too sure what he had. He knew that last year’s first singles player Ariel Roytenberg wasn’t playing, creating a lot of uncertainty in the singles lineup. He knew that he had Ilian Gamburg, who played second singles last year, ready to move to the top spot. He brings experience and a strong all-around game to the court. He would be a dependable No. 1.
But after that, Kretzmer wasn’t sure where he was going to go, when up stepped two unexpected prizes, freshman Brian Rau and Hitesh Daggubatti, a transfer from India. Just like that, the Mustangs were now set at singles.
Gamburg was the one Kretzmer had entering the season. Rau, who hadn’t figured in the mix when tryouts began, earned his way to the second singles slot by taking on all comers. Like Gamburg, he has an all-around game and is very tough mentally. Just like that, Marlboro was set at second singles.
Daggubatti, a junior, played his way into the singles lineup like Rau did. He brings with him a game not played by a lot of American players. Daggubatti goes for it on every shot.
From a lineup with holes back in March, Kretzmer is pleased with the way things have worked out at singles.
“I’m happy with our singles play,” he remarked.
The singles lineup is what figures to put the Mustangs over the top because they are strong at doubles.
“Our doubles teams are good,” said Kretzmer. “I have six who have played.”
Derin Goodman has been the nice surprise of the season at doubles. He was playing golf at this time last year and decided to switch to tennis this year. The junior will be one of the team’s top doubles players.
Afshin Himami, Bryan Lisser, Adam Orchart, Travis Winkler and Sharad Bhargana are all competing for starting spots. This in-team competition and the quality of the players should make Marlboro’s doubles lineup very strong.
“We have the opportunity to be good,” said Kretzmer of Marlboro’s 2007 prospects.
Marlboro was 11-7 last year, a record that most teams would trade for, but from Marlboro it was viewed as a rare offseason. Thanks to the bolstered singles unit, the Mustangs will be competing for a championship again.
One of the teams that will be chasing the Mustangs is Manalapan. Despite the graduation of four seniors who were a big part of the team that was 13-3, coach Lisa Brennan sees her team making a run at the A North title. Its strength is its singles lineup, led by four-year starter Alex Pritsker.
“I have a lot of confidence in our singles players,” she said. “I’m pretty confident in the team. I expect us to do well.”
Pritsker is one of the best first singles players in the Shore Conference and close to an automatic point for the Braves. Experience has made him a more relaxed player on the court and he’s hitting the ball much harder this spring.
Another senior, Jimmy Yao, who played doubles in 2006, will be playing second singles. Hard work over the past year has propelled him from doubles to second singles.
Junior Derrick Cowit, who also played doubles last spring, fills out the singles lineup. He, too, worked on his game in the offseason.
Brennan likes this unit, which is good enough to give Manalapan a chance against anyone.
The question mark for the Braves comes at doubles. The team has depth here and some experience, but they go into the season without any combinations having established themselves as a tandem. Dan Jacobs, Andy Liu, Rohan Jain and Mitch Rosenberg are among the players vying for doubles slots. All saw limited action last year. Nolan Bilder and Dan Shabash are also in the doubles mix.
Howell has been making steady inroads in recent seasons and went 10-11 last spring. Coach Todd Curtis has a very experienced singles lineup with three seniors manning those positions.
Steve Rogers returns at first, with Danny Parisi and Matt Freed at second and third. All three experienced success last year and will be looking to build on that in 2007.
Nick Grassi and Kevin Gaskill, both sophomores, played doubles last year as freshmen and should be much improved this spring.
Harry Block, Matt Craig and Andrew Lacombe saw limited action in 2006 and will be vying for doubles positions.
Curtis said the team’s goals for 2007 are to be competitive in the tough A North Division and qualify for the Central Jersey Group IV and Shore Conference tournaments. They made the SCT, but missed out on the state tourney last year.
Freehold Township begins 2007 with the same goals as Howell – be competitive in the division and qualify for the postseason. The Pats went 8-9 and return all but one player.
Anson Ahne, Benjamin Kahn and Austin Schindel, who played first, second and third singles for the Patriots last year, are all back.
So are doubles players Philip Levin, Brian Schwartz and Noah Catkin.
Coach Phillip Pender’s team demonstrated its talent last year going 7-7 in A North. The team would like to better and get to the postseason this time around.
Colts Neck will be looking to jump into the mix in A North, since coach Ron Bruh has six of his seven starters back, including Matt Loving and Parth Parikh as first and second singles.
The double lineups of Joe Ades and Krishan Parikh and Ari Ades and Mike Winderman are also back.
That should be enough to make the other teams in the division take notice.
Jon Block has a Freehold Borough squad that is coming off a sparkling 17-3 campaign in which they won the B North Division with a perfect record and advanced in the SCT and state playoffs. Five players return from the team that was young in 2006. They will be going after Ocean Township (up from A North, where they were the champions) in the division this spring and have the chance to again be one of the top teams in the conference.
Veteran first singles player Karan Kapoor has graduated, but Rajat Verman, who played first doubles last year, has jumped up to first singles. Kevin Sun remains at second doubles, and freshman Siddarth Melkote is playing third singles
Like last year’s championship team, the Colonials have a strong singles lineup
They are also solid at doubles, where Jeremy Goldman, who teamed with Verma last year at first doubles, is back and teaming with Ilian Levy, who moves up from second doubles.
Vinay Ayala and Miher Khokani are playing second doubles for the Colonials.