Boys’ Tennis Wins N.E. Championships
This past Saturday and Sunday, Exeter’s boys’ tennis traveled to Groton to compete in the class A division of the NEPSAC Boys’ Tennis Championship. Entering the tournament, Exeter, the two seeded team, had high hopes for its matches. In the two day event, however, the team even exceeded expectations, crushing Deerfield in the first round, narrowly defeating Kingswood Oxford in a thriller in the semi-finals and toppling the one seeded Taft team Sunday to win the title of New England Boy’s Prep School Champions.
“Last weekend was a dream. We beat Deerfield pretty handily, but we had tough matches against Kingswood and Taft. Both were comeback wins and required our determination to the end.”
The boys woke early Saturday morning to journey to Groton for their first round match against a competitive Deerfield team they had beaten 4-2 earlier in the season. Exeter won the doubles point decisively and proceeded to win 1st, 4th and 6th singles, played by Lower Brian Niguidula, prep Ryan Nguy and upper Joon Kim, respectively, earning the 4 points needed to advance to the semi-finals and secure a 4-1 victory.
Later that day, Big Red played day school Kingswood Oxford (KO) in the semi-finals, a team that the boys’ do not play during the regular season. The match started out rough. KO had beaten the host school, Groton, a decisive 4-2, and started off against Exeter winning the doubles point by claiming the 2nd and 3rd seed doubles matches. Soon after, KO secured a lead in the singles as well, beating 1st and 2nd singles Niguidula and senior and captain Moises Escobar, respectively.
Down 0-3, Exeter needed to win all remaining singles matches to obtain the victory. Nguy and Kim retaliated with quick victories against their opponents, but 3 and 5 singles upper Rex Tercek and lower Cameron Gruss still needed to win to clutch the victory for Exeter, and both had dropped their first set.
Gruss rallied, however, winning the next two sets and as a result brought the overall team score to a 3-3. It was up to Tercek to pull out the victory.
But Tercek’s match was in a tenuous situation. Down 0-1 in sets and 1-5, 15-40 in the second set, Tercek’s opponent was serving for the win and had two match points.
“The remaining match seemed nearly impossible to win,” Niguidula explained. Nonetheless, the team gathered around Tercek’s match to cheer him on and provide moral support. Tercek staved off his opponent’s two match point opportunities and a third later in the set, and he shocked all in his comeback win of the second set. In the seven point tiebreak determining the match, Tercek found himself down 5-6, serving to keep Exeter’s chances alive.
With some gorgeous shots and mental tenacity, Tercek saved the match point and went on to win the tie breaker 8-6, securing an Exeter appearance in the finals.
Tennis coach Freddie Brussel praised Tercek’s perserverence and dedication, saying that he “[attributed the victory]to his hard work on and off the court.
Tercek’s comeback astonished and delighted the team. Escobar said that after Tercek went down 1-5 in the second set, he thought the match was over.
“To be honest, I thought our hopes to win New England’s were finished during the semifinals,” Escobar said. “Our coach had already told me to start packing up... I don’t know how he did it, [but Tercek rallied] to win his match in a nail-biter.”
The following day, Exeter traveled back to Groton to compete against Taft, who had beaten Andover earlier in the tournament, in the finals. Once again Exeter found itself down earlier on in the match after dropping the doubles point, as well as 5th and 6th singles. Yet again Exeter needed to win all remaining matches to secure the victory.
Niguidula, Escobar and Tercek each crushed their opponents in two sets and left Nguy as the deciding match. Nguy, however, had bruised his heel the day before the tournament and had been suffering a severe limp throughout.
“Ryan dropped the first set because he was not moving as well as he normally does because of his injured foot and pulled hamstring,” Brussel explained. But Nguy battled against his injury and warmed up as the match progressed, winning the second set 6-4. He then took control of the third set and won 6-3, earning Exeter Boys’ Tennis its first ever New England Tennis Championship title.
Escobar described Nguy’s victory as “miraculous” and said that for him, the tournament was “a roller coaster of emotions. I was surprised how much the win meant to me. I’m so glad we pulled through and brought the trophy back home to Exeter.
Kim agreed, emphasizing that the team was brought to be the first from Exeter to claim the title. “Last weekend was a dream,” he said. “We beat Deerfield pretty handily, but we had tough matches against Kingswood and Taft. Both were comeback wins and required our determination to the end.”
While Exeter basks in the glory of its championship, it also looks to the future and how to improve for next year. Niguidula congratulated the work of his teammates, saying that Tercek, Gruss and Nguy, in particular, played exceptionally well. Nonetheless, there are gaps in their games on which the boys must focus.
“Though the team played well overall, we were unable to secure the doubles point for the last two games,” Niguidula said. “Our coach has been working with us on doubles strategy, but it was still difficult to compete against the other tough doubles teams.”
Overall, the tournament was a roaring success. The team celebrated its victory Sunday night at Panera, which Tercek described as a fitting end to the season. “Our season was like the glistening cinnamon bun Freddie bought at Panera,” Tercek said. “We enjoyed the whole thing, but the moist, chewy center, the championships, was the best part.”