Group 3 Threepeat for Miller Tennis

At the beginning of the spring, Millburn boys tennis head coach Bill Wickenheisser said that this Miller team was the deepest team he could remember entering his ninth season at the helm. Millburn’s depth was in full display on Thursday afternoon at Mercer County Park, as the boys wrapped up their third consecutive Group 3 Championship, besting Moorestown 4-1 in the final.

On a hot, humid and hazy day Wickenheisser had to go to his bench as two players were forced to retire after the semifinal win over Holmdel. First doubles starter, Mac Johnson left with a 102 degree fever and strep throat, while third singles starter, Tristan Lane had to withdraw due to heat exhaustion.

As a result, the normal second doubles team of Nicky Chen-Schmidt and Teddy Moskovitz had to move up to first doubles, Jared Wishnow was partnered with freshman John Duan at second doubles and Alex Shipp stepped in for Lane at third singles.

No problem.

“Kids get a little upset when they’re not playing, but they see the importance of getting other people the opportunity to play. I can’t blame them for being upset because they want to play and this is what they work for,” Wickenheisser said. “But this is the reason why we give other kids the opportunity to play, you never know when you’re going to need them. Every year, they all work hard to make sure if they get the call, they’ll be able to capitalize.”

Shipp made it look easy in his match against Bryce Cody, leading and dominating on the way to a 6-3, 6-1 win and clinching the championship. Wishnow and Duan blew away Moorestown’s Hamza Husain and Dan Schaufhauser at second doubles, 6-0, 6-1 at second doubles. The move up didn’t bother Chen-Schmidt or Moskovitz who rallied from a game down in the first set and won in a tiebreaker and then they cruised in the second set, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.

“I was a bit worried but I thought we could handle it because our first doubles did well last time we played them so I thought we could take them too,” Chen-Schmidt said. “We kind of learned what to do with our games and we played two back, so we changed our games up.

“I think we definitely remained composed and we tried to hang in there against our opponents,” Moskovitz said. “We just adapted to the way they were playing.”

Rob Xie also performed well, winning at second singles against Colin Groundwater. After falling behind 1-0 in both sets, Xie righted the ship and won 6-2,6-2.

In the semifinals, held in the morning, Millburn defeated Holmdel 3-1, with Xie’s match against Charlie Seifer ending in a 1-1 tie. Holmdel spent most of the season ranked ahead of the Millers, but Millburn proved that rankings don’t mean anything on the court.

“I think the rankings don’t really mean that much, especially not to us,” Shipp said. “So we just came in and played and did our best.”

Four of the five contests went to three sets, and the sun beating down made the semifinal match a grueling battle.

“We practice in every element, it doesn’t matter. It’s cold, it’s windy, it’s hot, it doesn’t matter because we practice in it all of the time. I think that gives us an advantage. We don‘t make excuses for it, we just deal with it,” Wickenheisser said. “With that being said, it got hot quickly this year and it has taken every team by a little surprise. We just preach, fluids, fluids, fluids.”

Lane, who dropped the first set in a tiebreak to Daway Chou-Ren, bounced back and won the next two sets to clinch a spot in the finals for Millburn, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2. Chen-Schmidt and Moskovitz were the first point for Millburn, defeating Ganesh Natarajan, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 at second doubles. Johnson and Wishnow beat Neeve Nikoo and David Lyu at first doubles 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 for Millburn’s second point.

“A lot of people said it would come down to the first match of the day and that was really the final,” Wickenheisser said. “As Moorestown proved, that wasn’t necessarily the case. They’re a very good team. Coach [Bill] Kingston was just named the winningest coach of all time, he’s very knowledgeable and his kids always come to play.”

It’s on to the Tournament of Champions now, with the Millers looking to continue their season at the state quarterfinals on Tuesday. Millburn is now 23-8.

“I’ve always said that tournament of champions is a bonus,” Wickenheisser said. “If we can get some extra hardware there, that’s great, if not, that’s ok too, we’ve worked hard. Not all things are equal there. You’re playing private schools, you’re playing bigger schools. But I like our chances, I really like our chances.”