High schools: Eyeing three-peat, Amherst boys tennis rolls past Agawam in opener (PHOTOS)
Published: 03-30-2023 10:58 PM |
AMHERST – Miles Jeffries wore four layers of pants and shorts and three layers of shirts for the Amherst Regional boys tennis opener Thursday.
The Hurricanes’ No. 1 singles player started the season hot despite 36-degree weather at first serve and a freezing 10 mile per hour wind, beating Agawam’s Dylan Fisk, 6-0, 6-0.
“Getting back into the groove of the season, feels good to start off with a win, of course,” he said. “There were some bad matches last year where it was real cold and windy, so learning from that helped me.”
Amherst, the two-time defending Western Massachusetts champion, bested Agawam 5-0 to open its three-peat bid.
Amherst’s Elias Katsaros finished his match first 6-0, 6-2 over Jacob Barber at No. 3 singles. At No. 2 singles, Woojin Kwon bested Cole Stepanik 6-1, 6-1 wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.
“I was really rusty, but thankfully I was able to get my rhythm back pretty quickly,” Kwon said. “Running and hitting and stuff gets your body temperature up, and by the time the game started I was pretty set to go.”
Amherst’s No. 1 doubles team of Rory Hartblay and Oliver Hansell won 6-1, 6-2 over Tyler Gervais and Egor Mikhaylov. Talvin Dhingra and Daniel Stize of Amherst beat Nolan King and Minje Kim 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles to secure the sweep.
East Longmeadow 4, Belchertown 1 – No. 1 singles player Trevor Weiss got the lone victory for the Orioles in their opening showdown against East Longmeadow on Thursday.
Article continues after...
Yesterday's Most Read Articles
Weiss won in three sets, picking up the first match 6-4, dropped the second 6-2 and won a dramatic third set tiebreaker 7-6 over East Longmeadow’s Lukas deBlok.
PVCICS 5, PV Christian 0 – The Dragons won all five of their matches against PV Christian in their first contest of the season, earning the win at their new home court, Hampshire College.
PVCICS had two sets of twins playing doubles, with the No. 1 duo of James and Teddy Scott besting Alejandro Rodriguez and Reese Ficarra (6-1, 6-0) and the No. 2 doubles pair of Derek and Devan Ye earning a come from behind three-set win over Gabe Malloy and Patrick Sherman (5-7, 7-5, 12-7).
No. 1 singles Aidan Cleary earned a win over Brad Hill (6-0, 7-5) and No. 2 singles Hugo Shinn defeated Brandon Aikman (6-2, 6-0).
No. 3 singles Gab Loinaz also won by forfeit.
Pope Francis 17, Northampton 4 – Gage Sperlonga and Richard Roy posted seven points each for Pope Francis in a lopsided win over the Blue Devils.
Jack Carpenter scored twice for Northampton and Liam Parr (1G, 1A) and Nick Biddle (1G) also scored in the loss. Goalie Henry Fallon made nine stops for the Blue Devils.
The loss was the first of Northampton’s season, dropping the club to 0-1. Their next match will be against Belchertown on Tuesday.
Minnechaug 3, Belchertown 0 – Connor White and Gabriel Ibekilo led the Orioles with six assists in a loss to Minnechaug (25-16, 25-17, 25-16).
Belchertown setter Rainer Kristensen also tossed up 11 assists and added two kills.