PHS senior captures tennis title
By: Justin Feil
Chris Hoeland has some lofty goals for this spring tennis season.
The Princeton High senior just doesn’t want to think about them while he’s playing.
Hoeland kept the pressure off by getting off to a strong start on his way to avenging a regular-season loss to David Holland when the two met for the Mercer County Tournament first singles title Thursday. Hoeland emerged a 6-3, 6-3 winner to capture his fourth MCT title and first at first singles.
"It’s nice to have one at first singles just because the competition is really good at first singles," said Hoeland, who won last year at second singles and the two previous seasons at third singles. "It’s really nice."
Hoeland’s victory over Princeton Day School’s Holland was the only flight in which West Windsor-Plainsboro South did not claim the championship. The Pirates won convincingly with 38 points. Hoeland’s win enabled the Little Tigers to tie PDS with 18 points for second place.
Hopewell Valley was fourth with 17. West Windsor-Plainsboro North was sixth and Hun finished eighth.
"I’m proud of how the team did," said Princeton head coach Paul Lynch. "We’re happy to be second. That’s outstanding considering they graduated so many guys. We have an anchor in Chris, but after that, they’re all new performers."
Hoeland has been a consistent performer since he was a freshman for the Little Tigers. With each season, his importance has grown and this year he’s being looked at for leadership from the top of the ladder. With that position comes some natural pressure to perform, but it was an external not internal pressure Thursday.
"I didn’t put any pressure on myself," Hoeland said. "I didn’t have any expectations going into (Thursday). I wanted to have fun. I have goals, but I don’t want to think about them a lot."
Hoeland lost some of the natural pressure when he came in as the No. 2 seed after losing to Holland in the regular season. This time, Hoeland dispatched of WW-P South’s Shintaro Mori in the semifinal in straight sets while Holland was pushed to the limit by Steinert’s Jon Yu. Yu won the first set before Holland came all the way back to advance to the final.
"He got up on the ball more and moved his feet more," said PDS head coach Rome Campbell of Holland’s comeback against Yu. "He made some adjustments. He just relaxed. He may have been a little nervous. Jon played great the first set. That was the first time that Holland has been pushed. That’s the first three-setter he’s had this season so he was truly tested."
Tackling Hoeland was a difficult task after the nearly three-hour match. Hoeland made things even more difficult by coming in better prepared for the pair’s second meeting.
"My coach is the same coach he had," Hoeland said. "I got some advice from him. I used it somewhat, but that advice had nothing to do with my serve."
Hoeland’s big serve was going in and it set up the rest of his game. Since his first loss of the season, Lynch has seen a change in his game. Hoeland has been unbeaten since that defeat.
"Since he lost to Holland a few weeks ago, his game has been on," Lynch said. "He’s been playing great tennis against a lot of top flight players. He didn’t lose a game the first day and I think he dropped only nine or 10 games, which is impressive. His improvement is showing.
"Chris’s serve has been much stronger. His serve and volley was much better today. And David didn’t play quite as well as he did the first time, but he’s going to be a great player."
Holland earned the No. 1 seed by putting together an unbeaten first half to his freshman season. He helped the Panthers finish second overall, their best finish in more than five years. The lefty gave Hoeland plenty to think about, including the prospect of having his three-year run of titles ended.
"I would have tried to tell myself it’s OK, it’s only a high school match," Hoeland said of the alternative. "It’s definitely great to win, especially since I lost to him earlier in the year."
That loss played right into Hoeland’s plan to keep the pressure off him in the finals. He adapted the second seed mentality though he was aiming for ground accomplished only five times before in the MCT history of five flights.
"He beat me earlier," Holland said, "so he’s expected to win. It helped me not put expectations on to win. It’s easier to win if you don’t have any pressure on you."
By winning the first set, Hoeland in a way pushed some pressure back on himself. In the second set, after taking a commanding four-game lead, Hoeland lost a pair of games before closing out his fourth MCT title.
"Sometimes I have a habit of getting out in front and then falling behind or letting them come back," Hoeland said. "The last time I got up on him a break in the first set and he broke right back. I don’t think that happened this time."
While Hoeland was the only player to break up WW-P South’s monopoly, his teammates Chris Nesi and Yoshihiro Tachibana finished second in second doubles. Even second-place finishes were hard to come by.
"We’ve played a lot of tough teams," Hoeland said. "It’s good for everyone just because it’s tough competition. We’re coming along. The team will be real good in two years."
PDS’ Seth Stein was the only other Panthers’ player to win a medal outside of Holland. Stein was second at third singles, while an injured Vikram Gupta finished fourth at second singles.WW-P North advanced a pair of flights to the semifinals. Apurva Dasholkar was third at third singles when he beat Hun’s Chris Martin Martin while Billy Huang and Patrick Shock finished fourth at first doubles.
"I’m definitely very pleased with Apurva finishing like he did," said Knights head coach Albert Paulsson. "This year, he’s definitely progressing nicely at singles. Last year was his first year. This year, he’s stepped it up well. I think he should be happy. I’m really very happy with his play overall for the season.
"The team overall, I think we’re better than how we finished. Some of the matches we lost were very close. John Cheng lost a three-setter. Our doubles lost a tough three-setter against Princeton. That’s just how the draw goes. I’m content with how the team played. We played some tough teams well and overall we should be satisfied. We’re better than we finished and that will wash out when we go into states and rest of season."
Hun advanced to the semifinals in two flights as well, and Ren Gates and Nick Ventura finished third at first doubles while Chris Martin was fourth at third singles.
"First doubles has played an incredible number of third sets this year," said Hun head coach Chris Kingston. "They played a great three-set consolation. It was back and forth. They were up, 4-2, then down, 5-4. But then when it got really tight, they had been playing tentatively and losing aggression, and they decided to go for it. They made some big shots and some big points."