By Adam Knoll
Sports Correspondent
The boys tennis team took first place in a quad tournament May 2 after being able to turn three first place finishers, two seconds, a third and a fourth into a championship group.
“This was a close tournament, we needed every athlete to get the win,” head coach AJ Paul said after the tournament. “I think playing some really tough teams Friday night gave us momentum for Saturday. We played awesome tennis.”
Dineth Gunawardena only lost two games all day, leading his singles matches all afternoon. Mitchell Dalzin was able to shake off a lost first set in his final match of the day to win the second set and the tiebreaker afterwards. Paul took note of the conditions Dalzin faced to accomplish the feat.
“He was in some long matches and the weather was hot so that was impressive,” Paul said.
Later in the week, however, the Whippets could not keep up the good vibrations and lost a tight fight to Luther Prep.
Josh Nast won his singles match 1-6, 7-5, 10-8 in a thriller, showing his toughness and grit. Brodie Runez also had to come back to win a stunner, 2-6, 7-5 and 10-4 to give the Whippets a nice boost.
Jan Maroske tried to emulate Nast and Runez, yet was overtaken 0-6, 4-6 while Dineth Gunawardena did push a third round, yet ran out of gas 4-6, 6-4, 10-8. Had one shot gone the Whippet’s way, they would have earned a victory.
Chamath Gunawardena and Forrest Spear had to fight off a Prep comeback 6-2, 3-6, 10-8. The remaining doubles matches were lost in straight sets, leading to the one point loss.
