By: Sean Moylan
Coming off a rare loss, the Florence High varsity tennis team was not about to lose last Friday’s match at Burlington City.
The Flashes not only beat the Blue Devils 5-0, second doubles was not even contested.
"I felt bad for Burlington City because all of their (doubles players) did not show up," said Florence assistant coach Sam Steinmetz, who is filling in for head coach Ovi Dragos, who’s returning from his trip to Romania this week. "But they had a lot of game in them."
Florence’s Joe Molimock has become somewhat of a dominant first singles player. Yet even he had to play hard to beat the Blue Devils’ Shane Hajzer 6-3, 6-2.
"Joe (Molimock) said that he (Hajzer) had an unconventional game and he hit everything back," said Steinmetz. Molimock, a master at making adjustments on the fly, beat him anyway.
At second singles, Florence’s Milorad Milosovici overwhelmed George Moore 6-1, 6-1.
"Milo (Milosovici) is all power. George (Moore) tried very hard but he’s just a beginning player," noted Steinmetz, who once coached a very young Florence tennis team himself.
It took a little bit more for Florence’s Russ Molimock to defeat Zach McCord 7-5, 6-2 at third singles, however.
"Russ (Molimock) had a tough match with that fellow McCord, but he hung in there and he overcame it," said Steinmetz, who saw it as an important win for Molimock.
At first doubles, Ben Pinter and Josh Partyka shut out Burlington City’s Dean Catlett and Jamall Brown, who were also beginners.
Meanwhile, Flashes’ stars Usman Huq and Nick Bencze stayed ready in case they were needed to play a doubles match. But they got the afternoon off.
Florence (3-1) was scheduled to have hosted Pemberton yesterday (Wednesday). It is to host Palmyra today (Thursday) in a makeup match. Florence is scheduled at Delran on Friday. It is scheduled to host Holy Cross next Tuesday. And Florence is scheduled at Rancocas Valley next Wednesday for what should be a pretty competitive match.
NBC
There is little doubt that Northern Burlington County Regional High boys’ varsity tennis star Doug Zytko is playing some of the best tennis of his career this season.
And Zytko had no trouble making a smooth jump from third to first singles this year. But even he had no answers and was no match for Lenape’s Nilola Kocovic last Wednesday. Kocovic defeated Zytko, a fine player, 6-0, 6-0 to lead his team to a 5-0 win over NBC at Lenape.
"Lenape’s freshman kid (Kocovic) is very good," added NBC head coach Larry Young, who believes Kocovic may even have what it takes to beat Moorestown’s first singles player.
At second singles Matt Perone defeated Northern’s Brian Foran 6-0, 6-4. Vishal Thacker, NBC’s third singles player, gave Lenape’s Jon Povco a pretty good match. But Povco won it 6-4, 6-1.
"Vishal (Thacker) just made less mistakes than our other players," said Young.
At first doubles, Lenape’s Bill Blatchley and Kevin Curry beat Liam Setz-Kelly and Lukas Aschbacker 6-2, 6-0. And at second doubles Northern’s Jackson Fenner and Jeff Leedom played hard but didn’t win any games.
NBC is 1-3 but with so many rainouts it still has time to correct the ship and make a playoff push.
Northern Burlington was scheduled to have played a match at Burlington Township this past Monday. But that match was postponed and rescheduled for May 21st. NBC was scheduled to have played at Moorestown this past Tuesday and that match was also postponed until a yet to be determined date. NBC was scheduled at Burlington City yesterday (Wednesday). Today (Thursday) NBC is scheduled to host Rancocas Valley.

