A 4-1 win over Holmdel in the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions final vaulted the Millers into the top spot in the state for the second year in a row and capped a season record of 29-1, the best in at least the past five years.
The 2013 Millers won their state section, group, and the TOC this year, and were runners-up in the Essex County Tournament, losing in the final to archrival Newark Academy, the only loss this season.
In their three other meetings with Newark Academy, the Millers were victorious, along with a 4-0 2013 record against their other local rival, Livingston High School.
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The championship match
In the finals of the TOC, Millburn faced third-seeded Holmdel, which had upset second seed Newark Academy 3-2 in the semifinals the day before. Millburn, seeded first in the competition, had sailed past Moorestown High School in the semis 4-1.
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The 2 p.m. championship match was played outdoors at Mercer County Park in 95-degree conditions. But the weather wasn't nearly as fierce as the competition on the courts, with calls of "c'mon" ricocheting from court to court as winning forehands, backhands, overheads, volleys, lobs, and serves painted the lines.
Millburn's first doubles duo Teddy Moskovitz, a senior co-captain, and Keith Knop, a junior, took their Holmdel opponents Sam Joynson and Ethan Wong by surprise with their pitch-perfect play, scoring the first team point for Millburn with a 6-1, 6-1 virtuoso performance.
Next off the court with a huge win was first singles Tyler Schick, a sophomore, who went undefeated in regular season play. In the championship match, Schick faced Holmdel's Michael Chen, part of the "best 1-2 punch in the state," as Holmdel told the Star Ledger, and took him to school with a 6-1, 6-2 victory.
When Millburn's second doubles team of senior Andrew Nolff and junior Evan Imegwu squeaked through a second-set tiebreaker against David Lin and Dennis Barlotta, they clinched the championship for Millburn, 6-2, 7-6(5).
In it to win it
But the second and third singles players had both split sets, and despite the oppressive heat, they played out their matches.
Millburn senior co-captain and second singles Dean Koman took on Holmdel's Derek Liu. Koman won the first set 6-4, but Liu regrouped to win the next two 6-0 and 6-2, scoring Holmdel's only point.
With the team score at 3-1 for Millburn, the remaining match was played out on the third singles court.
After taking the first set 6-1, Miller junior Jason Ginsburg called for a medical timeout in the second set so he could be treated for heat exhaustion. He rallied, but dropped that set 4-6. Spectators from both teams lined the fences shouting encouragement during the third set, which ended with a seesawing tiebreaker that Ginsburg gutted out for a 7-6(6) win.
Team competition has ended for 2013, but the post-season continues for NJSIAA singles and doubles competition that begins Saturday, June 1. Millburn's Schick is seeded in the 5-8 group and Koman in the 9-16 group, while Nolff and Imegwu, Millburn's doubles entry, are seeded second in the state.
