Photo Gallery: LHS Boys Tennis Reaches Second Straight Sectional Final

Two matches deep in this year’s MIAA North Division 1 boys’ tennis sectional tournament and the top-seeded Minutemen have yet to lose a set, let alone a point.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Minutemen recorded their second-straight 5-0 victory of the postseason, this time sweeping No. 4 Andover High School in the Semifinal round.

In addition to a boatload of confidence, the sweeps accrued by Lexington has landed it a spot in the North D-1 final for the second straight season. The Minutemen (22-1) will face No. 2 St. John’s Prep of Danvers for the sectional championship on Friday.

The match will be played at Newton South High School on Friday, with the start scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

If not for anything else, the Minutemen will be riding high as they look for a second straight sectional championship. Lexington knocked off Concord-Carlisle High School in last year’s North D-1 final.

“If anything, it’s just given them confidence,” Lexington coach Chris Pugliese said of the 5-0 victories. “They want to come out here and they want to play well. With a 5-0 win, that’s telling everybody in the lineup is playing well.

“The kids are just in high spirits. They want more so they’re going to stay out there and fight.”

Once again, it was the Minutemen’s top-to-bottom skill the got the most of their opponent. Even the talented Andover (15-5) squad was no match for the depth of Lexington.

“They’re very strong top to bottom – they really don’t have any weaknesses,” Andover coach Mike Wartman said. “They have excellent singles players and solid doubles players.

“So, I’m proud of the way we played. We battled them hard and we gave it their best shot.”

That was certainly evident from start on Wednesday. While the Golden Warriors made several of the matches close, they were still too much for the talented Minutemen.

In the singles competition, Lexington freshman Ben Tso took the No. 1 match against Andover’s Austin Bendetson, 6-1, 6-1.

The No. 2 singles match was the last match of the day to finish up. Junior Mark Pronchick locked up the sweep for his Minutemen with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Christian Waters. Another freshman, David Herrera, picked up LHS’ final singles point with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Andrej Samardzic at No. 3.

Lexington was also dominant in the doubles competition. Senior Preston Wu and sophomore Dan Maffa won 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1 and junior Jonah Bader and freshman Harry Nichols won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2. Those teams beat the Andover pairings of Evan Birenbaum and Justin Edelman and Alex Kutchin and Arun Padykula, respectively.

Now, the Minutemen turn their focus to St. John’s, the only team to beat them during the regular season. St. John’s defeated LHS 3-2 on May 28.

As of the end of his team’s match, Pugliese still hadn’t heard the outcome of St. John’s match against Newton South in the other semifinal, but had a hunch as to the outcome.

“I’m preparing for St. John’s until I’m told otherwise,” he said.