W. Deptford No Match for Haddonfield Tennis Dynasty

The Haddonfield High School boys' tennis team demonstrated why it has a firm grasp on the Colonial Conference title and is an overwhelming favorite to claim a Group 2 crown on Tuesday, defeating West Deptford 5-0 in a match that was as lopsided as the score suggests.

Both Bulldogs doubles teams won 6-0, 6-0, while the No. 2 and No. 3 singles players dropped a combined six games. The only real drama came at first singles, where Haddonfield’s Max Oberholtzer stormed back to defeat Paulo Parente in three sets. Parente looked to be in firm control after winning the first set 6-3, but seemed flustered as Oberholtzer won the second set 6-3 and the third 6-2.

It was the first loss of the year for Parente.

“It’s a definite gut check for him,” said West Deptford coach Aaron Burr said. “You have to remember, he is still a sophomore, so I guess you can’t expect him to go undefeated.”

The Eagles (5-3) entered as heavy underdogs, having lost to the Bulldawgs three times last season, so the result was not out of the blue. Burr was happy with some of the play he saw, particularly at No. 2 singles, where Kai Narayanan lost 6-2, 6-2 to Luke Grabiak.

“I thought they all competed,” Burr said. “I thought that was probably one of Kai’s better matches, even though he came out losing. He got some confidence back in his shots, and hopefully he can use that for the rest of the week.”

Doubles was a bit more of a struggle, with neither team able to gain a game on Haddonfield. Doubles figured to be a work in progress when the season began, and despite Wednesday’s blanking, each team has continually developed.

“I’m seeing some improvement from the beginning of the year,” Burr said. “It’s little baby steps. I would like to see them take some bigger steps this week and have a nice three more matches, jell a little bit and provide us with some points.”

Wednesday’s result all but assures that West Deptford will not be chasing down a conference title, but finishing in second place is plausible. For that to happen, the Eagles must run off a string of victories over the next two weeks, including a rematch against Sterling (who upset West Deptford, 4-1 last week) on Tuesday.

Said Burr of the upcoming schedule: “We need to try to avenge that Sterling loss and just take care of the matches that we should win.”