After playing high up Northampton’s singles ladder last season, the Metz twins decided to combine their powers for their final seasons.

Seniors Aidan and Ethan Metz will man the Blue Devils top doubles pairing when the team is operating at its highest level against its toughest opponents.

“In singles it’s mostly all for you. For doubles, it’s more of a cooperative game. I wanted to not necessarily take a step back from the stress of singles but work on something more collaborative,” Aidan Metz said. “Doubles is an entirely different game.”

Aidan manned Northampton’s No. 1 singles spot for the Blue Devils’ state tournament loss last year against Martha’s Vineyard and in the Western Massachusetts semifinals against Belchertown, while Ethan played at No. 3.

Northampton’s lineup played out much more evenly in 2023, as the top five players clustered together. The other three players adamantly wanted to play singles, while both Metz brothers wanted to play doubles together.

“Doubles is an interesting part of playing tennis, and I think they’re really enjoying the strategy of playing together,” Northampton coach Ben Lewis said. “They play a lot together so there is a natural camaraderie, and I think that they enjoy being with each other.”

Their styles mesh well and elevate each other. Aidan, a righty, plays solidly and fundamentally sound, walling off the back line and picking precise shots. Ethan, the lefty, twists and whirls chaotic arcing balls that can bewilder opponents trying to return it.

“He’s got a lot of little tricky shots. I’m not sure he’d describe it that way, too, but he’s a lefty so he’s got some weird spin that sometimes messes people up,” Aidan said.

Spending so much time together on the court doesn’t create tension off of it.

“It’s an extension of how we live normally,” Ethan said.

They spend a lot of their time practicing details and intricacies but also just having fun. A favorite is “mini tennis,” which involves standing in the serving boxes rather than on the end lines and picking precise shots rather than hard smashes.

“We’re having fun, even messing around not playing tennis too seriously,” Aidan said. “It is a game, after all.”

A game the Blue Devils have excelled at so far. They’re 5-0, and the Metz twins defeated Central’s top pair in the season opener and earned another sweep of East Longmeadow in Tuesday’s victory. Vacation and opponent strength have limited the times they’ve played together so far, though. Both stepped back into the singles spots when the Blue Devils bested rival Amherst on April 18. They can still play there, too, whatever’s best for the team.

“They’ve been captains of the team and have supported each other and their other teammates, and this is another way they’re showing. When the team needs them to play singles, they’ll play singles, but they can also play doubles and lead the team in that way, too,” Lewis said.

It’s likely their last chance to play together and spend this much time together since they will probably end up at different colleges next season.

“It worked out naturally,” Aidan said.

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>