ALLENTOWN: Redbirds tennis aiming high

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   The Allentown High School boys tennis team has a lot of familiar faces back this spring, but most of them are playing in new spots.
   ”They’ve all advanced over last year,” said Redbirds head coach Daniel Fallon. “That’s a start. I’m looking for them to step up a bit. I think we lost three matches last year, 3-2. Hopefully those teams will be the same strength and we can get those.
   ”We play Princeton twice and Hopewell twice. It’s a different world with them. The CVC is split in two. We’re in the bottom. We’re tight with Steinert, Hamilton West. It would be nice to get Robbinsville, and Notre Dame. We’ve lost to Notre Dame, 3-2, the last couple years. (Beating) Hightstown would be a dream.”
   Fallon wants his team aiming high, and he has veterans who would love to help improve on last year’s 6-10 record. He has a pair of seniors at the top of the lineup to start the year. Matt Morini will slide up from second singles to first singles this season.
   ”He played last year,” Fallon said. “He knew what it was like at 2. He’s definitely ready for 1. And he’s the captain of our team.”
   Bob Millar jumps from first doubles to second singles, though he also saw some singles action last year. Sophomore Matt Brockman looks to move from doubles to third singles to fill out the singles lineup.
   ”My hope is that they stay healthy,” Fallon said. “Health is always an issue, and I hope they don’t get down if they don’t start out as well as they want to. It’s tough to keep them up all year based on the competition we play. They are making big jumps and I have faith that they’ll do all right.”
   A pair of juniors, James Graci and Patrick Dawes, figure to be in one of the doubles slots. They played together at second doubles last year.
   ”They’re challenging to see if they’re first or second doubles,” Fallon said. “They got experience last year.”
   Fallon is optimistic about the newcomers he has as well. Josh Samuels is a freshman in the mix.
   ”We’re looking for him to make an impact,” Fallon said. “He’ll definitely be one of the doubles players and if anyone gets hurt, he’s in the position to move up. He’s a freshman and he’s pretty good.”
   The Redbirds also have some players that are new to the tennis team, and they bring a new energy to the team.
   ”Matt Fleischacker and Josh Golub, they’re both football players,” Fallon said. “They’re seniors and they came out for the spring because there’s no football, and they’re having fun. They said, we should have done this three years ago. They bring a different element to tennis. It’s very fun.”
   Kyle Sulit is moving over from lacrosse. He brings terrific footwork and is battling for a spot in the lineup. Varun Jain is a freshman.
   ”He’s in the mix,” Fallon said. “There’s definitely a lot of potential if he sticks with it for four years.
   ”We have a group of guys who are very equally matched,” he added. “Hopefully with some good weather and some guys getting the fire, they can fight it out for the last spot.”
   What has Fallon most excited about this year’s team is the turnout. He has almost 30 players to work with this season.
   ”For once, there’s not a huge spread,” he said. “There are guys that are close together, so in practice it’s easy to keep them together. There are ton of freshmen that are going to be on JV. They’re having fun. We definitely had a big turnout.
   ”Everyone is excited for the season to begin. Since we have a ton of guys, we’re trying to mix up our matches and get more courts so more guys can play matches. We’re trying to work that out with the other coaches now to see if we can combine the varsity and JV kids at the same site. That would be great. We’re hoping that happens.”
   This year’s Allentown varsity will battle to reverse some of its narrow defeats of a year ago as a strong corps below it builds hope for even brighter seasons ahead.
   ”The kids know who we’re very competitive with and who’s in a different league than us,” Fallon said. “This year we have 27 kids. There are a ton of freshmen that showed up. It’ll b a different story in a few years if we can get them to stick around and play year-round.”