Millburn Tennis Falls in County Finals

The Lancers were too much for the Millburn tennis team on Sunday afternoon at Branch Brook Park, in the Essex County finals. Livingston, the defending county champions, got wins from all of three of its singles players and from its second doubles team to beat out Millburn, 4-1.

“It’s a little disappointing,” said Millburn head coach Bill Wickenheisser. “You’re going against the number one team in the state and it was closer match than the 4-1 score is going to show.”

Millburn’s lone win came from its first doubles team of Jared Wishnow and Mac Johnson, who by virtue of the victory and going undefeated in the county tournament, won the county doubles championship, with the win.

“I’m really proud. I would’ve been happier if the team won, but Jared and I have been working really hard this season and it was nice to see it pay off in a title,” Johnson said.

After dropping the first set 1-6, Wishnow and Johnson were able to rebound for a 6-2 win in the second set and a dominant 6-0 performance in the final set.

“We knew we had to change something, because Jesse was playing very well and Matt was playing very well and with every point they were putting pressure on us,” Wishnow said. “We knew that we had to play looser and we had to change something up, so we played two back. That really allowed us to hit through.”

Rob Xie at second singles, Tristan Lane at third singles and Nicky Chen-Schmidt along with Alex Shipp at second doubles all lost in straight sets. Xie fell to Brandon Goldstein (6-3, 6-0) and Lane lost to Varun Dyapa (6-2, 6-4). Livingston’s Spencer Luster and Kevin Sun bested Schmidt and Shipp (6-4, 6-4).

“They’re all close games and that’s the most important thing,” Wickenheisser said. “It might say 6-2, but it could be 6-2 either way in a lot of those things. We’ve just got to clean up some of our errors and force our opponents into more errors.”

Eric Cohen started off very well at first singles against Thomas Caputo, overpowering Livingston’s top swinger in the opening set 6-3. Cohen was controlling the game with his power forearm in the opening set. But Caputo fired back, claiming 6-2 victories in both the second and the third set, wrapping up Livingston’s fourth point.

“Eric is one of the best players in the state, he just doesn’t play as much [as Caputo],” Wickenheisser said. “It’s all fun for him out there. He’s not going to college to play tennis, but he’s a phenomenal athlete and a great tennis player.”

Livingston improved to 14-0 with the win, while Millburn fell to 9-2. They are in action again on Wednesday against Montclair Kimberley Academy.