Vikes had some memorable firsts this season

By: Rich Fisher
   In the overall picture, South Brunswick High’s tennis team kept finishing second to East Brunswick, but the Vikings did so amidst some impressive firsts.
   For the first time since Nancy McDonald has been head coach, the Vikings reached the NJSIAA Central Group IV semifinals before losing to West Windsor-Plainsboro South. South’s 14-4 record was its best wining percentage under McDonald (.777), and SBHS qualified four players for the state singles and doubles tournament for the first time.
   The only drawback is something that the Vikings are, unfortunately, getting used to. They finished second to East Brunswick in the Greater Middlesex Conference’s Red Division with a 12-2 record, and finished second to the Bears in the GMC Tournament.
   "I need to be a victor now," McDonald said with a laugh. "We did have some firsts though, we can only go from there."
   South Brunswick’s season was impressive, considering it had to replace a first singles player and first doubles team that both made the state tournament last year. They lose even more this season, as all three singles players are seniors, along with a doubles player.
   "We reloaded, now we need to really reload," McDonald said. "I need some freshmen coming in as first singles players for four years to match up with East Brunswick and some of these other schools.
   "They all work hard in the off-season, and play year round. There’s not a lot more than they can do but compete. They’re really hard working at the sport."
   The team was led by senior Arjun Sapra, who went from second singles in 2006 to first singles this year. Sapra went 11-10 overall and 9-5 in conference play, qualified for the state singles tournament and was named team MVP. Sapra is thinking about trying to walk on to the Rutgers-Newark team next year.
   "He just had tough matches every time out against first singles competition," McDonald said. "He basically had to grind out those wins against some really quality players. Considering he had to make that jump, he carried our team through and had some good wins there."
   Senior Najeeb Hussain was named the team’s Most Improved Player after going 19-3 overall (13-1 conference) at second singles. Hussain made the jump all the way from second doubles, qualified for the state tournament and won his first two rounds in state play.
   "He moved in there and solidified the second singles spot," McDonald said. "There again, he was playing some of the best competition at that position. Sometimes the second best players are as good as the best players, with some teams."
   The lone player who was in his same spot for a second consecutive year was Mr. Consistency, Mike Finkelburg. The senior went 17-4 overall and 12-2 in conference, losing to East Brunswick three times, including once in the GMCT finals.
   "He was the oh-so-steady and reliable third singles point that I could always rely on," McDonald said. "He lost the GMC finals in a three-set heart-breaker, which was a shame. I’ll miss his leadership and his passion for the game."
   At first doubles, senior Arjun Kumble and junior Niket Khanna combined to go 16-5 overall and 11-3 in conference. They reached the GMCT semifinals and also qualified for states.
   "They were pretty solid as far as matching up with the other team’s first doubles, it’s just that they had tough matches when we got to the latter part of schedule," McDonald said. "They just couldn’t hold on against really tougher teams.
   "But overall they did good at first doubles and had good rapport. They played together as a JV team the proceeding year. That was the only thing hurting them, is they didn’t have varsity experience in tough matches."
   At second doubles, junior Nick Dou and freshman Ed Rodionov played together for the first time during their first season on varsity, and came up big with a 17-5 record and 12-2 in conference.
   "They did amazingly well considering they never played together and were new to varsity," McDonald said. "They’re both actually more geared for singles play. Nick Dou played doubles on JV the year before. Edward only played in singles tournaments and had to find his way in doubles, although he was a great doubles player.
   "I look for them to lead us on next year and possibly move into a singles opening."
   Other doubles players who got varsity experience were freshmen Aman Maholtra and Ravin Puri, sophomores Manas Kulkarni, Karan Bhatia and Skanda Amarnath, and junior Balaji Sutharsanam.
   McDonald said she expected the success her team had as a whole, but was somewhat surprised at the individual accomplishments.
   "I knew that team-wise, we would be OK," she said. "I knew that we would be able to win three points most of the time, but it was just a matter of who it was going to come from.
   "But I didn’t expect the singles competition in the states. I didn’t know how that was going to fare."
   In the end, it all fared pretty darn well.
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   The JV team finished with an impressive 12-2 record, behind the play of freshmen Jatin Khanna, Viraj Desay, Darshan Raj, Darshan Sangani, Charles Dou, Jiphin Jacob, Pujin Jhaveri and Zaeem Billah, sophomore Siva Yedithi and Varun Reddy and junior Nick Borodin.