LHS Boys' Tennis Team Opens Season with Big Win

The boys’ tennis team opened the 2011 season in a big way, downing Middlesex League foe Woburn High School 5-0 at home on Wednesday afternoon. The Minutemen dropped just three games out of 10 sets en route to the victory.

Overall, coach Chris Pugliese said he was pleased with how Lexington kicked off the spring.

“I definitely had some experience in the lineup, so I was happy with the lineup I put out today,” he said. “I mean, we dropped three games in five matches. That’s not what I expected, but I’ll take it. That’s definitely huge. I’ll take that any day.”

The Minutemen swept the singles matches by only dropping a pair of sets. Freshman David Herrera and senior co-captain Herman Luther won at No. 1 and No. 2 over Woburn’s Artie Nabizadeh and Nish Mehta, respectively. Both those matches finished 6-0, 6-0 in favor of the Minutemen.

Junior Jonah Bader picked up Lexington’s third singles point with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Keith Golden in the third slot.

Lexington’s dominance continued into the doubles matches. At No. 1 doubles, freshman Harry Nichols and sophomore Dan Maffa won 6-0, 6-1 against Woburn’s Jason Longo and Isaack Lucken. In the No. 2 doubles slot, senior co-captain Preston Wu and fellow senior Ben Feifke swept the Tanners’ Hao Mach and Jesse Doyle 6-0, 6-0.

And that damage was done with LHS’s two top players sitting out. Pugliese said he held Mark Pronchick and Ben Tso out of the lineup to get a look at some of the other players on the Minutemen roster.

By inserting several non-regulars into the lineup, and seeing how they perform in a live match, Pugliese said he now has a better idea of the depth the Minutemen have.

“It was to see about the bottom of the lineup, see who was playing well and test them out a little bit,” he said. “I got a lot of seniors in there, which is great, and (Thursday) I’ll know what we need to work on a little bit.”

The Minutemen are slated to play again on Friday, whey they’ll remain at home to take on Wakefield Memorial High School. Lexington then has a big match against Winchester High School on Monday.