Patriots Boys' Tennis Reaches Sectional Final

Concord-Carlisle High School's boys' tennis team made short work of Newton South on Wednesday afternoon.

The top-seeded Patriots won both doubles matches and first and second singles to reach the Division I North final of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) tournament.

Concord-Carlisle will face No. 2 Lexington in Friday's sectional final at Newton South High. The Minutemen defeated No. 3 Andover 3-2 in the semifinals.

The tone was set by Alex Steinroeder in his match against Newton South's Tyler Epstein, a match that was over before any other match had even finished one set. Steinroeder did not allow Epstein a single game, winning both sets 6-0 in what one Concord player declared, "must be world-record time."

Jay Berajawala, playing in the second singles match, defeated Newton's Adam Kulowski, and was the second player to finish his match.

"Come on, C-C, come on Alex, come on, Hayden. Don't break my heart," one fan pleaded during the doubles matches.

There was much more drama in the doubles matches, as the first doubles' first set went to 5-5, with the Patriots' Alex Ahee and Hayden Callahan grabbing the tiebreaking game to win 6-5. They won their second set commandingly, rallying to defeat Mark Garrity and Aaron Belowich 6-2.

Ahee finished Newton off with a dramatic volley off a serve from Garrity, setting up a cheer from the team and fans gathered as Concord clinched their spot in the final.

Eric Dinardo and Ben Aghion won both of their sets 6-2 playing second doubles, giving Concord their fourth point of the day.

The final match to finish was decided by a ten-point tiebreaker rather than a third set, as Concord had already clinched. Newton South managed to avoid a shutout, though, as Jonah Schwartz rallied to win the second set and then the tiebreaking match. Tom Kleyn's play was strong through the first set but weakened as the match progressed, and the Patriots conceded the final point, but are moving on anyway.

Concord-Carlisle coach Alex Spence plans to pit Steinroeder against Lexington's Cameron Ghorbani, the Minutemen's top player.

"That'll be an awesome match to watch," Spence said. "Lexington's squad is incredibly strong, one of the top seeds in this year's playoffs."

Ghorbani has been one of Lexington's strongest players this year. The matchup between him and Steinroeder might not finish in world-record time as today's did, but nevertheless be a good challenge for both players in the final match.