Holmdel Boys Tennis Off to Strong Start

With an overall record of 6-1, the Holmdel boys tennis team is poised to have another excellent season.

Led by head coach Chuck Chelednik, the Hornets have played exceedingly well at all positions. Their best efforts have produced wins over Shore Regional, Ramapo and Delbarton and shutout victories over East Brunswick, Matawan and St. John Vianney. Morris Knolls was the only team to hand them a loss, in the semifinal round at the Bryan Bennett Memorial Tennis Tournament hosted by Delbarton High School this past weekend.

Spectators to this year’s Delbarton Invitational, held April 9 and 10, saw 12 of the top 20 teams in New Jersey compete, making the level of play very challenging and exciting. Holmdel’s appearance in the semis was its best showing in several years of playing this prestigious tournament.

 “I feel this is the best team that I have had since 2002,” Chelednik said.

That year, Holmdel won the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions title. This weekend at Delbarton, the Livingston team won in the final over Morris Knolls. These strong teams may meet again in the state playoffs later this spring.

This year’s first and second doubles teams are particularly strong, to date enjoying a 7-0 undefeated season. The Newark Star Ledger named the first doubles team of Neeve Nikoo and David Lyu as one of the teams to watch this year.

Members of this year’s Holmdel team include seniors Charlie Seifer, David Lyu, Neeve Nikoo, Jacob Yang, George Xu, Jonathan Wu and Jojo Cheng. Also returning are juniors Ganesh Natarajan, Daway Chou-Ren, Michael Li, Daniel Tu, Ken Hua and Bobby Hadjitheodosiou, and sophmores Derek Liu, Ethan Wong, Kevin Chiou and Kenrick Woo. New to the team this year are freshmen Sam Joynson, Jeffrey Lu and Justin Chan.

This year, Holmdel is also hosting the first annual Holmdel Tennis Classic Tournament on April 20 at Holmdel. If you like to watch some good tennis, come out and support your local team players.