Lexington Boys' Tennis Dream Season Ends

Everything was falling into place for the Lexington High School boys' tennis team to feel a bit of déjà vu during Monday's Division I state tournament semifinals.

Just like the sectional final match on Friday, the Minutemen fell behind a good team early. And just as their D-I North championship over Concord-Carlisle High School was set up, the Minutemen battled back to make it a tough match with South champion Wellesley High School.

That's where the similarities ended.

Unlike their dramatic win over C-C in the sectionals, the Minutemen couldn't complete the comeback, bowing out of the state tournament with a 4-1 loss to a deep Raiders squad at Newton South High.

"We just fell short, but (Wellesley) deserves it, they played great," said Lexington Coach Chris Pugliese, as Wellesley celebrated moving on to Thursday's state final at Shrewsbury High School. "They're loaded, a good team and have great depth.

"It was a great season. I mean, tough loss, but we went down fighting. They had to earn it and they got it."

The Raiders will play Central champion St. John's of Shrewsbury, which swept West champion Longmeadow High School 5-0 in the other semifinal at Springfield Central High School on Monday.

For Lexington, losing to the Raiders was a bitter end to an otherwise spectacular season. The Minutemen were undefeated until their tournament ouster, finishing the season with a 23-1 record.

"I had a blast," senior No. 1 doubles player Andrew Herrera said. "I just had a lot of fun along the way. Winning the league and beating Concord was a lot of fun. I'm really proud of the team."

All the Minutemen players seemed to take the loss in stride. No heads were hung after the match, there wasn't any moping and certainly no tears were shed.

Pugliese said his team has nothing to be ashamed of.

"All positives about the season," the coach said of what he planned to talk to his team about. "This is the farthest I've been and the farthest most of these kids have ever been. On the way home I'll talk about all positives.

"It's just unbelievable. It's been a great ride. I'm going to make sure these kids realize that."

The Minutemen grabbed a short-lived lead when No. 1 singles player Cameron Ghorbani made quick work of Wellesley's Ilya Levin. Ghorbani, a senior, easily won the first set 6-1 and held off Levin in the second with a 6-3 win.

It proved to be the Minutemen's only point.

Next off the court were No. 3 doubles and the No. 3 singles match. Both were tight affairs.

Lexington's Kyung Jeon and Dan Maffa won the first set 6-4, but the Wellesley duo of David Mykrantz and Jeff Baldwin stormed back to win the next two and pick up the Raiders' first point. Mykrantz and Baldwin recouped for 6-0 and 6-3 victories.

Jeremy Weiser was the next Minuteman to go down, but again not without a fight. Wellesley's Alex Robertson cruised to a 6-0 win in the first set. Weiser made things interesting in the second set, but Robertson edged out a 7-5 win to earn the point

That put Lexington down 2-1 with two matches to play, exactly where it stood in Friday's sectional final. No dramatic comeback was in store this time.

Both the No. 1 doubles match and the No. 2 singles matches went three sets, with Wellesley winning both marathons.

Gordon Peters and Mike Pratt clinched the match for the Raiders with a 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 win over Herrera and partner Preston Wu. The Lexington duo looked strong in the early going before losing steam.

"(Wellesley) is tough to beat," Herrera said, "because they have the two good players at 1 and 2 (singles) and the rest of the team is so deep. They probably have three guys who don't play who could play in their lineup as well. It's just tough to beat a team that's so well rounded."

With the season already decided, and Wellesley already setting its sights on the state final, Chris Cua beat the Minutemen's Mark Pronchick 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.