Westfield Aces Livingston

The Livingston boys tennis team fell 0-3 to Westfield on Thursday in the Group IV semifinals at Mercer County Park.

The Lancers' (29-4) first doubles tam comprised of junior Jesse Bloom and senior Ben Hanft went quietly to Graime Stahl and Alan Catu, 6-3, 6-2. The second doubles duo of sophomore Kevin Sun and junior Matt Wolff almost managed a win but were edged 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 by Tom Kowalski and Scott Thompson as Livingston fell to 0-2 in the matchup.

"We battled and I'm very disappointed we lost that doubles," said Lancers head coach Elliot Lovi. "We were ahead and had the momentum."

With that second doubles setback, the team could ill afford another mistake on the court. Unfortunately, that's exactly what they got. In the third singles, sophomore Varyun Dyapa fell to Adam Reich 6-1, 6-3 to all but seal the deal.

After Dyapa's loss, sophomore Thomas Caputo's first singles set was halted due to time restraints. At the time of the cancellation, Caputo was tied with Scott Bernstein 4-6, 6-4 in the first singles. Junior Brandon Goldstein, who was putting up a 3-6, 6-3, 2-3 fight with Justin Snyder in second doubles, also had his set stopped for the sake of time.

"That's what they do here, I understand that," said Lovi. "They have to becuase there's (a lot of) teams down here. Our match was going late, I understand that."

A consolation for the Lancers is the Blue Devils went on to win the Group IV championship, the school's fourth in as many years, and will play in the Tournament of Champions next week. Also, the Lancers will return all but one starter next year and the team dropped just three matches all year prior to Thursday.

"We competed," said Lovi. "They're a very good team, like I said before I thought we were going to win. I'm disappointed in that respect."