Lancers Ace State Sectional Final

Sophomore Thomas Caputo triumphed at first singles for the Livingston tennis team, overcoming a pinched nerve and a torn cervical cord in his neck, to help the Lancers to a 3-2 victory over Ridgewood in the State Sectional Final on Tuesday when the two teams met at Nishuane Park in Montclair.

For the the Lancers, the win gave them the title for the first time since 2004.

It was a tough match as the Lancers, the top-seed, faced an equally competitive team.  Ridgewood, the defending sectional champions with only one loss on the year entering the afternoon, was seeded second.

"It was surprising for sure [not being the top-seed] being that we won the finals last year," Ridgewood head coach Deirdre Brewer said. "I don't know exactly how the seeding meeting went and what it was based on, only having one loss."

Caputo met Chris Hu on the first singles court. Caputo, the fourth-seed in the state singles tournament, dispensed of Hu by scores of 6-0 and 6-3.

"I felt that I won more tactically than I did physically today," Caputo said. "[I] kept the ball in the court, moved him around [and] let him fold under the pressure."

Caputo said that his neck did not affect him too much during the match.

"I went to the physical therapist before [the match]," he said. "He massaged it out and lined my neck up so I was good to go."

Second singles featured the Lancers' Brandon Goldstein against Charles Gundeck. Goldstein was undefeated on the season entering the match, but Gundeck offered the first blemish on his record. Gundeck won in straight sets, 6-2 and 6-2.

"Once he held serve the first game, then I pretty much handled the match from there," Gundeck said. "I just tried to be very aggressive and keep the ball deep."

First doubles, between Jesse Bloom and Ben Hanft of Livingston and Eddie Harlin and Stephen Miedel of Ridgewood, was close in both sets. Ridgewood took the match 7-5 and 7-6 but not without the Lancers fighting back. Despite being down 5-0 in the first set, Bloom and Hanft rallied back to get to five games each. The Maroons  took the next two games to win the set. The Lancers forced a tiebreaker in the second set, but Harlin and Miedel won that and took the match in straight sets.

Second doubles was all Livingston as Matt Wolff and Kevin Sun defeated Sam Keefer and Terrance Lam, 6-1 and 6-2.

"Our ground stroke game [was good], and Sun was playing great in the game and we were both serving pretty good, so all put together it played out well," Wolff said.

The only match that went to a third set was at third singles between Livingston's Varun Dyapa and Ridgewood's Griffin Kurzius. Kurzius won the first set 6-2 before Dyapa fought back and took the second set 6-2. The third set was close, as the pair played to five games each before Kurzius began cramping in his leg.

After a medical timeout by Kurzius, Dyapa won two straight games to take the set 7-5 and the match 2-6, 6-2 and 7-5.