PHS’ Reisman and Bianchini, South’s Norris win titles
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
A team tennis title would have meant more, but there were plenty of consolation prizes for those that finished behind overall Mercer County Tournament champion Hun on Wednesday.
Princeton High School, buoyed by three flight finalists including the first doubles champions, finished second, five points behind Hun with 27 points. West Windsor-Plainsboro South, led by a third-singles title from Lesley Norris, was third with 23 points. Princeton Day School came in fourth with 16 points, eight of which were earned by Samantha Lieb, the first singles champion. Stuart Country Day was fifth with 12 points and West Windsor-Plainsboro North was ninth.
”I’m really proud of the girls,” said Princeton High coach Sarah Heyman. “First doubles played a great match. They had a fabulous tournament. They gelled really well and have played some strong matches this year.
”Everyone else, we had three through to the finals. That’s one of our best showings in a while. It was a team effort. Everyone gave it their all. We just came up a little short. It’s disappointing. You never want to come in second, but second isn’t bad.”
The Little Tigers earned a gold when Kasey Reisman and Allegra Bianchini won a tiebreaker first set, then pulled away in the second set to capture their first flight title together over WW-P South’s Allison Kempf and Larissa Lee Lum.
”It’s awesome. I didn’t really come in expecting to win,” said Reisman, one of three seniors for PHS. “I didn’t know if we’re actually No. 1. So far, in our regular season, our matches haven’t been all that tough. I knew in this tournament we’d be facing our toughest matches yet. We played so well. We just pushed through. I’m so proud of the way we played.”
The key to the run to the title, Reisman said, was the mental strength by their combination. They had chances to go down, but always pulled through.
”Our first match (Wednesday), we were playing Hun,” Reisman said. “They were a really great team. I think we mentally got to them and pushed through. The whole time, I was thinking bulldozer and we can’t let them catch up. Against South, we were having a little bit harder of a time pushing through. They kept climbing back. Finally we pushed through the tiebreaker and then they only got two games in the second set. It felt good.
”In the first set, it was so close all the time. We were down, 5-4. Once we got to 5-5, we realized it could go either way. It was down to the fine specifics and we pushed through. In the second set, we realized what we had to do. Even though they’re really consistent and their shots were really good, we knew we could get past them and we did.”
PHS also had strong showings from its second doubles tandem of Jesse Delaney and Pooja Joshi and first-singles’ Priya Joshi. Delaney and Joshi won the first set of the final before falling in three sets in their first MCT. Priya Joshi fought off fatigue and illness to capture third place at first singles, while Alex Willig reached the second singles final.
”Priya played a great match there,” Heyman said. “She wasn’t feeling very well, but she still managed to fight through and pick up the point for us trying to contribute to the team effort.
”Overall, it was a good effort. It’s always disappointing when it doesn’t work out. But I am pleased with how they played. It is nice to win any flight.”
WW-P South also was happy to come away with a flight title. Norris barely lost a game in her march to the third-singles crown.
”It’s the first Mercer County Tournament that I’ve played singles in so I was pretty nervous,” said the sophomore, who was part of the first doubles team last year. “I just tried to go out there and forget it was a big tournament and just play like I was just practicing.
”For me, it’s important that I get momentum going and I get up pretty quickly. I tried to break pretty early on in a match so I can break the other person’s confidence and build up my own.”
Norris was worried about having unforced errors, but she kept the ball in play and took care of business quickly. The Pirates also had a third-place finisher in second-singles’ Neha Gavai as well as the runners-up at first doubles in Kempf and Lee Lum.
”We have some really great players on our team,” Norris said. “We were all a little worried because we lost a bunch of seniors. But everyone is playing really well. Second singles is going to get third. I think we were all happy. Of course, we wanted to get No. 1, but we’ll be OK with No. 2 or No. 3.”
The middle of the Pirates’ lineup helped them finish third at this year’s MCT. It was an encouraging finish for a team that has just two seniors and will return Norris among others.
”My three singles players are all pretty darn close so I expected her to do the best and I expected Neha to do the second best,” said Pirates head coach Jim Giovacchini. “They did really well. Our first doubles, that was really close the first set. That team played really well. They’ll play them again and we’ll see.
”Second doubles was taken out by the eventual champions (Hun), so they can’t argue that. Everyone did just about as good as they could. That’s all you can hope for. We’ll be back next year. Overall, it was a good tournament. Third out of 18 is not bad.”
PDS finished fourth. Lieb was brilliant in winning first singles. Brittany Christian was fourth at third singles, after an injury caused her default in the second set.
Stuart was fifth with three flights reaching consolation finals. The first doubles team of Kai Boulware and Nithya Mathews lost in three sets. The second doubles pairing of Catie Royal and Laura Engshuber lost to Notre Dame and Alex Abad lost to South’s Gavai in her first MCT in the singles brackets.
WW-P North did not send a flight to the semifinals, but won three first-round matches Monday.

