Boys’ Tennis Ends Season With an Even Record

Boys’ varsity A tennis team ended its season with a 4-4 record, while the B team ended with a 10-1 record. Although their goal was to repeat their New England championship title, they lost 4-0, failing to advance to the semifinals.

Some of the challenges this season arose because Exeter’s former number one A player, Brian Niguidula from the class of 2017, transferred to Andover last fall and its number two player, Moises Escobar ’15, graduated last spring. “After losing last year’s one and two, we knew we’d need to work hard and step up our game if we wanted to win another New England championship,” senior Jack Hirsch said.

Senior Joon Kim also commented on the effects of these losses. “We remained a very deep team, but without the firepower we had last season, it proved to be too big of an obstacle to overcome,” he said.

Another challenge this season was the weather. Many of their early season practices were either in the hockey rink or canceled because of rain and snow. “If we had indoor courts our season would have been more successful with even more playing time,” lower Pedro Sanson said.

Their schedule also had six away games,  adding another challenge to the team's plate. “During away games I feel that it is important to remember who you are playing for—you’re playing for Exeter and not for yourself,” prep Etienne Oshinowo said. “On top of that it is always important to stay focused and play your best game.”

“Each year, I always wonder if I will have as fun as the year before, and each year, I always do.”

The first two tiers of tennis courts were also removed this season for construction of the new theater. While New courts were built behind the softball fields, Sanson expressed his disappointment with their placement. “When the courts were by the gym not too many [people] stopped by to support our matches, with the courts being moved to the back of the fields we didn’t have any supporters which made me pretty sad,” he said.

Coach Fred Brussel believed as a team the boys served and returned well, but their weakness was rushing to finish the point. “The drills I worked on were consistency and controlling the points, which are the most important things to winning the points other than the serve,” Brussel said. “I am hoping that everyone that is returning steps up this summer and works hard to improve their games.”

The A team’s first match against St. Paul’s School was canceled due to rain. The boys then lost a close match at Groton School 3-4, and they lost their next match at Choate 2-5. Prep Alex Mangiapane described these losses as a “disappointing” beginning of the season. “We didn’t get off to a very good start for the season and that hurt our seeding for the New England tournament, meaning we had to play a tough team early,” Mangiapane said. To make the playoffs they would have to win the rest of their matches, a goal that they managed to accomplish.

The team carried on to a 4-3 win against Roxbury Latin School, who they hadn’t beaten in several years. The next day, Big Red beat Northfield Mount Hermon School 6-1. Upper Sergio Escobar played a close match where he won his first set 6-1, then lost the second 4-6 and the third, a tie breaker, 5-10.

The team was scheduled to play Andover the following Wednesday. However, due to unexpected rain, the matches were canceled. “We were playing well against Andover when the rain came and we had to stop, which gave us some confidence for the rest of the season,” Mangiapane said.

That weekend the team played Milton Academy and won 4-3. After winning the doubles point and two matches, the two teams were tied 3-3 and the winning point came down to upper Cameron Gruss’ match. His opponent had won the last three games and had the momentum, but Gruss came back and won the match. “Cam settled himself down and came up huge on a few essential points—a particularly impressive mental triumph and gritty win,” Hirsch said.

Gruss attributed the win to his Teammates. “We did a great job of winning the doubles point which made it a lot easier to win matches as a whole," he said. Winning the doubles point was one of the team’s goals for the season.

Following this win, they then beat Deerfield Academy 5-2. “I remember [the] match against Deerfield, an undefeated team, and we weren’t sure if we were gonna win and we ended up smoking them,” senior Ryan Posternak said.

The next weekend the team played at the New England tournament. After losing the first four games, the rest of the matches were called off. Lower Ryan Nguy, who played first seed, didn’t get to finish his match, but his opponent was “a hard hitter with a huge serve.” Nguy was down by the first set when the match was called. “We were up against some very strong teams at New Englands,” he said. “I thought that we were mentally and physically prepared coming into it, but Taft proved to be a very good team as well.”

Four seniors, including captain Rex Tercek, will graduate today. Hirsch said that he hopes the team develops more as a whole. “I’m going to miss the team dearly this season, especially since we’ve started eating nightly team dinners and bonding more than in other seasons. I appreciate the humor, wit and supportiveness of our whole team,” he said.

Kim mentioned Tercek’s leadership skills as a captain. “Everyone is willing to listen and look up to him,” Kim said. “He was my doubles partner, and we had many laughs, memories and some awesome points, and that will be something I’ll always cherish as my Exeter tennis career draws to a close.”

Tercek will be sad to leave the team after another extremely fun year. “Each year, I always wonder if I will have as fun as the year before, and each year, I always do,” Tercek said. “2016 was no exception.”

Although coach Brussel does not anticipate any new players to play on A team next year, he believes two players from B will be ready to fill spots next season on the A team. “The A team are good players that come to the matches ready to play and leave it all on the court when the match is over, I believe that we will be back in the New England tournament next year and be ready to contend for the championship,” Brussel said.