FLORENCE: Boys tennis a perfect 5-0

By: Kyle Moylan Sports Editor
    It took a lot of help and hard work to get the Florence High School boys’ tennis team off to a great start this season.
    Florence practices four hours a day. That work even continued when Ovi Dragos, the team’s coach, had to take a leave of absence.
    “I had to leave for 10 days to Europe,” Dragos noted. “My mom was very sick and she passed away. Mr. Wheaterbee (english teacher) has helped us with supervising the team and the varsity players were in charge of working the routines and to work with the freshmen.”
    Dragos was away for the first three matches, all won by Florence. With their coach back for the two matches this past week, Florence posted a pair of 5-0 wins.
    “We have a very nice group of players — attitude wise, skills and team effort,” Dragos noted.
    Florence defeated Palmyra, 5-0, on Thursday.
    Milo Milosovici defeated Brett Cahill 6-3, 6-0 at first singles. Ben Pinter defeated Kenny Fields 6-0, 6-1 at second singles. Josh Partyka defeated Josh Stevens 6-0, 6-0 at third singles.
    Florence also won all the sets in doubles action. Nick Bencze/Russ Molimock defeated Burak Ekiz/Josh Gersh 6-2, 6-0 at first doubles. Arnold Petras/Pavan Kothari defeated Danny Morgan/Alex Wolf 6-0, 6-1 at second doubles.
    “Nick Bencze and Russ Molimock are probably one of the strongest first doubles for a Group One school,” Dragos said.
    Florence defeated Pemberton, 5-0, on Friday to improve to 5-0.
    Milosovici defeated Josh Muckleston 6-0, 6-3. Pinter defeated Brendon McCartney 6-0, 6-0. Partyka defeated Steve Zampino 6-0, 6-0.
    In doubles action, Bencze/Molimock defeated Ian Wildman/Kevin Ngo 6-0, 6-2. Kothari/Petras defeated Jamel Shuler/Reuben Ford 6-1, 6-2.
    While happy with the 5-0 start, Dragos and his players aren’t content. This is a bunch that isn’t afraid of a little hard work.
    “We need to work a lot and very specific to have a chance to do well in the playoffs,” Dragos said. “Our second doubles is a new team and we work a lot on skills, but also with the singles players.
    “It is important to develop proper basic skills for the new players because we have four seniors and next year will have a very young team. In average it takes at least two years to develop a varsity player, but when we play the top teams in Group One from North Jersey they have players that start first singles as freshmen. They definitely start playing tennis at a very young age.”
    NBC TENNIS
    The Northern Burlington boys’ tennis team was defeated by Cinnaminson, 4-1, on Friday.
    Varun Ravidran defeated Alex Verbaro 7-5, 6-3 at first singles for Northern Burlington’s lone win.