St. John's Tennis Loses In D1 State Final

Very rarely in sports does a team never experience the feeling of failure during a season.

Place the Needham High School boys tennis team in that rarefied space. The Rockets knocked off 5-0 Thursday afternoon at Algonquin High School to lay claim to the Div. 1 state title and finished the season a perfect 22-0.

“It’s fantastic,” said an emotional Needham coach Andrew Lawrence. “These guys are, oh gosh, they’re a special group of kids. I don’t know if you can tell, but they’re a very tight-knit group of kids.”

He continued, “And it makes the experience of coaching so much better. And the fact that they’re great tennis players, you know, is wonderful. We knew we had the ability to make this far. But we also knew we were going to have to really play to our best each and every step along the way.”

Second singles Aaron Segel was certainly playing at top form as he quickly won in straight sets (6-1, 6-3) giving the Rockets the 1-0 lead. Needham's second doubles team of Mitchell Silverman and Ben Okonow soon followed dispatching Cam Lewis and Nick Massarelli, 6-3, 6-4. 

The victory was attained moments later with the Rockets first doubles Mo Lipman and Matt Bejian also winning in straight sets (6-4, 6-2).

In first singles, Needham’s Aaron Revzin won the first set 6-3 against Chris Ellis, but was put to the test in the second before smashing a forehand winner to clinch the set, and match, 7-5.

Rocket Phil Weiner took the first set 6-3 in third singles, and was up 5-0 in the next stanza, but Pioneer Parth Amin battled back to 5-4. Weiner managed to calm his nerves and tallied the match point. 

“We knew that they were extremely good from top to bottom and that their lineup was solid,” said Pioneers head coach Ed Hippert. “And I thought we played them tough. Sometimes 5-0 looks like a rout, but really when you watch the matches, it’s less a rout. It was a good match.”