Boys Tennis Falls to Sharon in MIAA Tourney

The Sharon High School varsity boys tennis team remained undefeated with a 3-2 victory over Falmouth in the MIAA Division 2 South Sectional quarterfinals in Sharon Monday.

The top-seeded Eagles improved to 17-0 on the season. The ninth-seeded Clippers finished 13-8 overall.

Sharon’s victory avenged a 3-2 loss to Falmouth in the sectional semifinals a year ago, which is also the Eagles' last loss. Last spring, the Clippers would then lose, 3-2, to Hingham in the sectional finals.

“The kids and I talked about it before the match,” Sharon head coach Matt Freeman said.

“We wanted to beat them, but we had no animosity towards them. They are good kids and hard players and they have a terrific coach.”

The day got off to a good start for Sharon, as junior Eric Bloom and sophomore Jake Steinberg captured their match at first doubles, defeating the Clipper junior duo of Ricky Moore and Brett Folger, 6-0 and 6-2. The Eagles went ahead 2-0 when junior Aditya Puttigampala defeated Falmouth sophomore Danny Fleer 6-0 and 6-2 at third singles.

After dropping the first set to Clipper junior Spencer Pinkney, 6-2, Eagle junior Vivek Nangia suffered a severe cramp in his left leg in the second set. He was able to resume his match, but when the cramp returned, he was forced to retire, trailing 5-4 in the second set.

During this time, Sharon senior captain Brad Malenich managed a 7-5 victory in the first set of his match with Falmouth sophomore Sean Dugas. But then Malenich began having trouble with his right forearm in the second set.

The Eagle senior co-captain was able to get to a second-set tiebreaker, which he lost to Dugas seven points to four. But Malenich was unable to continue after that point and was forced to retire, with Dugas being awarded the victory.

During the second set between Malenich and Dugas, the Sharon second doubles team of seniors Kevin Lee and Dan Elfman were playing well in their match against Clipper sophomores Grant Davis and Connor Cobb. After taking the opening set 6-0, the Eagle duo earned the third team point and clinched the match for Sharon with a 6-1 win in the second set.

As it turned out, the second doubles match concluded prior to the stoppage in the second singles contest, so the Eagles had their first tournament victory of the season in hand by that point, 3-1.

“My thinking coming into the match was that I would be happy if we got two points,” Falmouth head coach Craig D’Amario said.

“But this was not the way we wanted to get them. I was really happy with how the kids played today. I thought we had a chance to get two points and hopefully we would be able to get a third to win the match.”

The Clippers had advanced to the sectional quarterfinals with a 4-1 victory over ninth-seeded Randolph in the first round.

“It was great that the kids were able to experience a win in the tournament this year,” said D’Amario. “We are disappointed that we lost today, but it was great that the kids were able to get a win in our first match. We had a young team this year and I was very happy with the season we had.”