A rainy Saturday morning. Uncertainty in the air. Would the matchups be played, delayed or postponed to another day? As murmurs from players, coaches and parents formulated throughout the Westfield Tennis Club, the decision was made. The matchups would go on, despite the alarming weather reports.
In their first matchup of the day, Westfield faced Bridgewater-Raritan. Like many of their matches this season, the Blue Devils won 5-0. The singles matches consisted of first singles senior Deven Patel, second singles senior Evan Sewald and third singles freshman Chris Winters. Patel won his matches 6-0 and 6-2, Sewald won his matches 6-3 and 6-2 and Winters won his match 6-2, 6-0. The doubles matches included the first doubles made up of senior captains Cole Hornbeck and Colin Cimei, winning their matches 6-0, 6-0, and second doubles, sophomore Evan Kahn and freshman Justin Lee, winning their matches 6-1, 6-4.
“I think we did great. I mean, we won five to zero, so it doesn’t really get much better than that,” said Lee. “I’m not going to disrespect the other team, but we definitely were the better team today.”
After over an hour of waiting, the Blue Devils commenced their second matchup of the day, West Windsor-Plainsboro South. West-Windsor had given the Blue Devils quite the competition, edging a 3-2 win over the Blue Devils and winning the invitational. For the doubles matches, to no surprise, Hornbeck and Cimei crushed West Windsor’s first doubles 6-2, 6-2. But despite their victory, Hornbeck said, “They were definitely one of our top opponents we’ve ever faced.” Right beside first doubles, in a nailbiter, Sewald and Kahn won the second doubles match in three sets, 6-4, 6-7, 10-6, tensions rising from both sides of the court throughout the entire match.
Unfortunately for Westfield, the singles matches presented a greater challenge. Coming back from an injury, junior Eshaan Khera played his first match in weeks, playing first singles. The other singles matches were made up of second singles Patel and third singles Winters. Khera lost 4-6, 2-6, Patel lost 3-6, 1-6 and Winters lost 3-6, 3-6. But to the Blue Devils’ credit, West-Windsor’s tennis program is reputable for being very competitive and very successful, holding a 20-1 record this season.
Although the Blue Devils competed well against this tough competition, there are still areas to improve. According to head coach Matthew Varhley, the team needs to “make less unforced errors” and win by playing “with enough offense to put teams away.”
The Blue Devils will face Summit on Tuesday at Tamaques Park at 4 p.m. in their last attempt to secure a win before states.
