Boys' Tennis Beats St. John's, NMH

Boys’ varsity A tennis beat St. John’s 4-3 on Friday and Northfield Mount Hermon School 6-1 on Saturday in a two-day double header. This was Big Red’s first victory against the strong St. John’s team since 2010."The win against St. John’s was significant, because we have not beaten St. John’s during the regular season in recent years, so it showed our potential for the future," upper Paul Lee, who played as #5 on Friday, said.Co-captain senior Kelvin Lee described St. John’s as "one of the tougher teams we play during the season." First-seeded Kenny Tao ’15 agreed, praising his teammates for playing so well against such a difficult opponent. "Everyone played really well against St. John’s, performing their best when we most needed it. After losing the doubles point, we needed four singles wins, but difficult as it was to get, we got those four singles wins through everyone’s stellar performances," Tao said.During Friday’s match, upper Nikhil Raman and prep Rex Tercek triumphed in very close matches that clinched Exeter’s win against St. John’s. "Nikhil was at the top of his game and even pulled off a very risky swinging volley on a crucial point," Kelvin Lee said. "He has really been improving a lot, and his matches on both Friday and Saturday demonstrated that he is a really strong asset to the team."Tao agreed. "Nikhil clinched the 3-3 game, and he played the best I’ve ever seen him play on Friday," he said.Teammates also praised Tercek, who filled in for injured players and triumphed in the second varsity A match of his Exeter career on Friday. Tercek played as #6 singles and won in the third set tie-breaker 10-8, fighting through an injured wrist."Rex stepped up at #6 and won a great match for us after splitting sets and winning the tie-break," Paul Lee said. "I think Rex getting his win for the A team on Friday was really big for his career as an Exeter tennis player."The boys also won their game on Saturday against NMH, extending their undefeated streak to five matches. "NMH was probably one of the weaker teams we played this year, but it was still a boost in confidence for us," Tao said. "It was a good match to try out the things we have been practicing and experimenting with different game plans."Senior Will Yu, who earned a call up to #6 on varsity A due to an injury forcing Paul Lee to sit out singles, clinched his first varsity A win on Saturday, beating his opponent 6-4, 6-2. Kelvin Lee was impressed with Yu’s performance. "Will had to step up to the challenge of playing an A match on Saturday," he said. "He seemed very confident at the start of his match and played well throughout—it’s always nice to have such a motivated player on the team."The team, despite its undefeated season so far, plans to work even harder in order to continue its streak. "As for our undefeated season thus far, we look to keep our streak going strong, hopefully even for the rest of the season, through hard work and good team spirit," Kelvin Lee said.