It could be one of the most exciting days in the history of the Lynnfield High tennis girls and boys tennis programs, a day that featured a second consecutive boy-girl doubleheader at the new tennis complex. The boys team followed the girls’ team’s thrilling 3-2 win over Bromfield with a 4-1 win over No. 9 Cohasset on June 5 to keep both teams’ state title hopes alive with berths in the Final Four.
“The doubleheader was the best part of it,” head coach Joe Dunn, Sr. said. “It was great to see such a big crowd there. To have the parents and friends of both teams there cheering everyone on and to have the chance to watch the girls play was very exciting. I walked around the court so many times watching; the girls just would not give up and it was so cool to watch.”
Shea McCarthy staked the Pioneers to a 1-0 lead with a 6-2, 6-2 at second singles. Five minutes later, the second doubles team of Matt Reinhold and Kurt Rothermund made it 2-0 with a win in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. Dan Levin lost his match at first singles, 1-6, 3-6 to narrow Cohasset’s deficit to 2-1. But Dunn wasn’t at all worried.
“Second singles and second doubles really took care of business pretty quickly and played pretty well stuck to the game plan,’ Dunn said. “I had a feeling of relief knowing we had those two points and knowing that usually when Dan falls behind, he always comes back, but he was up against a backboard. Everything Dan threw at him, his opponent was getting back, sometimes off the pace. Dan played well, but the other kid was a really solid player. I knew it could go either way.”
Needing one point out of the two matches still on the court to win the match, the Pioneers took both. And like the girls’ match, the decisive point came out of third singles with Shlok Kudrimoti doing the honors, 6-1, 6-0.
“I was so thrilled that Shlok got the point at third singles. The match was very similar to Maddie’s (Sieve) with 15-20 shot points at times. I was amazed at the score because the points were very long. Shlok was very steady and his opponent was too and kept it in play but Shlok really moved this kid around ragged with lobs and eventually, the kid would make an error. I was really happy for Shlok and was relieved he got the final point. Everyone was so excited for him.”
The first doubles team of Russell Kasdon and Brendan Sokop polished off the match with a three-set win at first doubles. They won the first set 6-3, but dropped the second set 2-6, forcing a third and deciding set. The duo rallied to take the set 6-2.
“First doubles had already started a third set at 3-1, but they wanted to keep going, so they played a full third set,” Dunn said.
The boys team squared off against familiar foe and No. 3 seed Hamilton-Wenham on June 11 at St. John’s Prep (results too late to print.)
“We’re going up against such a tough team and we were fortunate to win our first match against them (in the regular season),” Dunn said. “We hope to play as well against them and it never hurts to have a little luck as well. I’m happy to be playing at the Prep. Some of the Lynnfield kids on the Prep team were at our match cheering on their friends. “It felt great to see they have that friendship with the Lynnfield team and we hope to be able to see them play as well.”
No. 1 Lynnfield 5
No. 17 Leicester 0
The boys tennis team made a clean sweep of the boys-girls doubleheader at the new tennis complex on June 5, barely breaking a sweat to advance to the Elite Eight. Every match was decided in straight sets. Levin took the first singles match, 6-1, 6-0 and McCarthy took the second singles match at love, 6-0, 6-0. Kudrimoti made it a singles sweep with a 6-2, 6-2 win at third singles.
Sokop and Kasdon won the first doubles match, 6-1, 6-0, and Raffi Arkum and Slate LiPilato won the second doubles match, 6-4, 6-3.
“It was a good win,” Dunn said. “They had a very good, steady team and were in every point of the match. “