The visiting St. John’s Prep tennis team (15-0) may have shut out Lynnfield, 5-0, Thursday afternoon, but coach Joe Dunn Sr. said his Pioneers (13-1) had no reason to hang their heads.
Both teams came into the match undefeated, with the Prep ranked as No. 2 in the power rankings (as of Tuesday, the Eagles moved back to No. 1) and the Pioneers ranked No. 1 in Division 4. In the end, the Eagles’ depth and firepower were too much for the Pioneers to handle.
“Nobody gave up and they all played the best they could against one of the strongest teams, if not the strongest team, in the state,” Dunn said. “We knew it would be a tough challenge, but there are many lessons to take away from this match, especially when it comes to being able to take it to another level in the state tournament.”
The match was old-home week for most of the players, many of whom grew up learning the game at Northeast Tennis Center and attended school together in Lynnfield. Three Prep players live in Lynnfield. Suffice it to say, there were a lot of heartfelt hugs and wishes, but once the players hit the hardcourts, it was game on.
While four matches were decided at love, the marquee match of the afternoon was the first singles battle between the Eagles’ John DeAngelis and the Pioneers’ junior captain Shea McCarthy, who moved up from second singles to fill in for senior captain Dan Levin, who was ill. The match featured great shotmaking and brilliant defense on the part of both players from start to finish. Trailing 0-5 in the first set, McCarthy took the next three sets to close to 3-5, but DeAngelis recovered to take the next set and take a 1-0 lead.
McCarthy fell behind, 3-4, in the second set, but took the next three to tie the match at 1-1 and force a tie-breaker for the third set, won by DeAngelis, 10-7, to close out the match.
“Honestly, I felt that if Shea had won the tie-breaker, he would have won the match,” Dunn said. “He is playing at another level higher than what he normally does. He plays at a high level normally, but he’s even playing higher than that today. This is brilliant tennis. I’m glad to see these two play.”
McCarthy said that while the Pioneers were challenged, “We have the experience of playing against really good players. This is a confidence booster in that we can walk into any match knowing we have played the best, so even though we lost, this was just what we needed.”
Prep junior captain and Lynnfield resident Jack Prokopis defeated Raffi Arkun, who normally plays doubles, in the second singles match, 6-0, 6-0. Luke Free followed suit in third singles with a win over Lynnfield’s Russell Kasdon.
Despite the loss, Kasdon, the Class of 2024 valedictorian who plans to study mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, said there nonetheless was much to be gained.
“There’s no better practice than being able to put everything into a match like this,” he said. “Today everyone had to play out every point and hit back and forth before you can win the point. There were also such high spirits out there because everyone know each other.”
Prokopis’ twin brother and fellow captain Luke Prokopis and Boris Kouzminov defeated Brendan Sokop and Slate LoPilate at first doubles and Mark McDuffee, also of Lynnfield, defeated Shlok Kudrimoti and Kurt Rothermund at second doubles.
All players agreed that this match is their favorite of the year.
“I have so many good friends on the Lynnfield team, including my oldest friend, Brendan Sokop,” Jake Prokopis said. “I love playing this match every year.”
Luke Prokopis said while it was “a little difficult at first to separate friendship from competitive spirit, but once you get into the match, it’s just all tennis. In the summertime we actually hit the local courts and hang out together so it was fun being on the court together today.”
McDuffee, who intends to play club tennis at Providence College this fall, said he enjoyed playing against the hometown friends he grew up with.
“I really enjoyed it and it was very competitive,” he said.
The Pioneers’ next match is Thursday at North Reading at 4 p.m. The Eagles are back in action Thusday at St. John’s High in Shrewsbury at 4.
