Chatham Boys' Tennis Plows Through Competition for State Title, Advances to Tournament of Champions

The Chatham boys tennis team won the state Group 2 finals and will advance to the Tournament of Champions following a 3-2 victory over Pascack Hills in the group semifinals and a 3-2 triumph over Haddonfield at Mercer County Park on Thursday.

 "The singles players have stepped up and come through," said Chatham Head Coach Bruce Humphreys. "Doubles have improved. They're struggling a little bit, but we've played well enough to survive. We have to come ready to play everyday."

In the semis against Pascack Hills (20-4), each Cougar (29-1) singles player manhandled their opposition. Patrick Monaghan outplayed Michael Solimano 6-3, 6-2 and has still only been defeated three times this season. One of those defeats was in the North II, Group 2 finals on Tuesday. His brother, Quentin, who is undefeated on the year, was even more stunning with a 6-2, 6-0 drubbing of Gidean Drucker.

"I think that was the biggest thing, inconsistency," said Patrick Monaghan. "[Solimano] can hit it really big but he would hit a huge one and then double fault. I just couldn't get in any rhythm. I just focused.

"I knew that some of the points that I missed I just played really loose, I just shanked them. I just had to focus a lot better," he continued. "I never like to play the net and I knew he would try to bring me in. I knew it would sort of be a cat and mouse thing."

Matt Romei, playing the third singles, also put on a show as he crushed Jason Prezant 6-3, 6-1. Romei, like Quentin Monaghan, has yet to drop a match this year.

"It feels great especially becuase this was a close match the last time we played Pascack Hills," said Romei. "This was a great place to do it, too."

The three singles victories were enough to win the match, which is a good thing for Chatham because both doubles teams faltered against Pascack Hills. Matt Evans and Andrew Coppola fell to Zach Sude and Dan Rosen 6-2, 6-3. Chris Harvey and Chad Gildersleeve drew a split due to time restraints, as the match was already decided, with Justin Winikoff and Brian Teitel 6-4, 4-6, 3-2.

"The doubles don't play bad—they just have to find the confidence step up and pull out some big points," said Humphreys. "Right now we've been struggling with that. There's nothing to be nervous about—you just show up and play. They come in and expect a lot of themselves. There's no big hype before and there's no big hype after."

The Cougars continued to dominate in the finals against Haddonfield (29-5). Patrick and Quentin Monaghan took down Will Lawlor and Brian Oatway 6-0, 6-2 and 6-3, 6-0, respectively, while Romei edged out Matt Godlewski 6-3, 6-2.

"It feels great [to win again]," said Patrick Monaghan. "I think the loss helped a little. Now I have my confidence back."

Both of Chatham's doubles teams fell to Haddonfield as well. Ty Simcox and Luke Grabiak took care of Evans and Coppola 6-2, 6-2, while Ian Roberts and Sean Campbell defeated Harvey and Gildersleeve 6-3, 6-2. It was too little, too late for Haddonfield as the effort from the singles players was enough.

Chatham is one of four teams to advance to the Tournament of Champions. Seedings will soon be determined.

"We played a lot of good teams in the state, so I think we're confident," said Monaghan.