Millburn Boys Tennis Drops Season Opener

In a rematch of last year’s Tournament of Champions first round, the Millburn tennis team faced off against the Delbarton Green Wave to open the 2011 season. Only this time, the Millers came out on the short end, being edged 3-2 at home by the Morris County School on Saturday afternoon.

“I was expecting a great match and we got that absolutely,” said Millburn head coach Bill Wickenheisser. “I was surprised at second and third singles.”

With the match all squared at two apiece, the final result came down to the first singles match up between Millburn’s Eric Cohen and Delbarton’s Chase Savage, who had split the first two sets. In the final set, Savage earned a key break point in the fifth game over Cohen, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 advantage. Cohen was unable to break Savage’s serve from then on, and eventually fell (6-3, 3-6, 4-6).

Both of Millburn’s doubles teams were victorious against the Green Wave. At first doubles, Mack Johnson and Jared Wishnow overcame an early 2-1 first set deficit and rolled to a 6-2 win in the opening set. In the second frame, Delbarton’s Eric Shiuey and Garrison Block kept things close, but were unable to break Millburn’s top doubles squad, who held on for a 6-4 second set win.

Nicky Chen-Schmidt and Alex Shipp won two very close matches at second doubles for Millburn over Mike Boyle and Tommy Pigott, (7--6 (7-3), 7-5). Like the first doubles team, the boys had to rally from behind in the opening set, falling behind 2-1, 4-3, 5-4 and 6-5 before pulling out the opening set tiebreak. In the second and final frame, Delbarton’s duo seemed primed to force a second tiebreak, being down 6-5 with the serve. But Shipp and Chen-Schmidt broke Delbarton’s final serve to win the match and pick up Millburn’s second point.

“We have a very experienced player on second doubles in Nicky Chen-Schmidt. He’s like a player-coach and he’s playing with a very improved player in Alex Shipp, who really has worked hard at his game,” Wickenheisser said.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was Delbarton’s performance at second and third singles, pretty much dominating their Millburn opponents. At second singles, Miller junior Rob Xie lost in straight sets to Spencer Furry (6-3,6-0). At third singles, Millburn’s Triston Lane was bested by Matt Massey (6-1, 6-3).

“What I was most impressed with was Delbarton’s second and third singles players,” Wickenheisser said. “Robert Xie is an excellent player and we kind always expect a point out of him.”

Being that it’s still game one of the season and that Delbarton is not a conference, county, sectional or group opponent, the loss is of little consequence to Millburn, other than the fact it lets them know there’s still work to be done.

“It’ll help them focus more as to why we’re out here as long as we’re out here,” Wickenheisser said. “It’s good for us to have a good first match so we can see where we are.”