Sports
Millburn High School's Tennis Team’s Quest for TOC Title Ends at Semifinals
With NJSIAA Group and Section titles in hand, their season record is 23-8
Millburn was knocked out of the running yesterday for the topmost state title for high school tennis by undefeated first seed Livingston High School, leaving the finals of the NJSIAA-Star Ledger Tournament of Champions to Livingston and third seed Delbarton.
Delbarton defeated second-seeded Newark Academy and will play the Lancers today at Mercer County Park.
Wednesday’s semifinal matches were played indoors at Inman Tennis Club in Edison because of dire weather predictions from Mercer County. In Millburn’s case, the faster indoor surface seemed to favor the Lancers.
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Tough competition
Millburn’s second singles Rob Xie fell to Brandon Goldstein, 6-0, 6-1, giving Livingston its first point.
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Next, first singles Eric Cohen left the court with a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Thomas Caputo.
The match-clinching third point belonged to Livingston’s first doubles team of Matt Wolff and Jesse Bloom, with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Millers Mac Johnson and Jared Wishnow. Those two pairs, seeded second and first, respectively, in the state doubles rankings, have met five times this season, with the Lancer top two now up 3-2 over the Millers.
After dropping the first set 6-1, Millburn’s second doubles duo, Nicky Chen-Schmidt and Teddy Moskovitz, weren’t able to consolidate a comeback in the second set, losing it 6-4. Their head-to-head against Lancers Spencer Luster and Kevin Sun stands at 1-1 for the season.
The final Livingston point came from third singles Varun Dyapa, who fought off Miller Tristan Lane in a three-set battle. The final score was 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 for Dyapa.
An enviable record
The Millers end their 2011 season with a 23-8 overall record, which includes five unsuccessful outings against Livingston.
Millburn will have to be content with a record few teams can match: As a TOC semifinalist, it’s one of the top four teams in the state, and it captured the NJSIAA Group 3 trophy for the third straight year and the North 2, Section 3 title for the 26th straight year.
