The Millburn boys tennis team advanced to the Tournament of Champions with victories over Ramapo and West Windsor North in the Group III finals on Thursday.
"I'm very happy for this team, it feels great," said Millers head coach Bill Wickenheisser. "They battled all year, a lot of close matches all year. I think those close matches helped them in times like today."
The Millers (23-6) started their day off with a 3-2 victory over the Raiders (20-4) in the group semifinals. First, sophomore Robert Xie fell 6-2, 6-1 to Jonathan Carcione. Then, senior Sebastian Chen Schmidt and his sophomore brother Nicky routed David Brooks and Paul Singman 6-2, 6-1 in second doubles to even the match at one all. Next, junior Eric Cohen, playing first singles, fell 6-3, 6-2 to Christian Carcione, Jon's older brother.
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It was 2-1 for Ramapo, until senior Dan Feldman and sophomore Mac Johnson evened things up with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 triumph over Adam Nolte and Alex Keane at first doubles. Seconds after their win, sophomore Jared Wishnow managed a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over Taimi Ando in third singles to win the match and advance the team to the group finals.
"We executed, and when things got tough we won the big points," said Wickenheisser. "That's the key, we won the big points."
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In the group finals, Millburn used a strong showing from Xie to advance to the Tournament of Champions.
Cohen handled his business with Tim Wu 6-3, 6-3 for the first point in the finals. The Chen Schmidts then edged Zach Kurfirst and Kevin Shock 7-6 (2), 6-3 in the second doubles to put the Millers ahead 2-0. As the second doubles was going on, Feldman and Johnson fell to Abishy Pandita and Kevin Shi 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to bring the Knights (21-2) within striking distance, 2-1.
"I don't know if there is a difference, they're both great teams," said Wickenheisser.
Things could have gotten ugly for the Millers, but Xie stepped up to the challenge during an intense match with Evan Samet. Xie took the first set 6-2, but Samet battled back and won the next 3-6. Finally, in a back and forth third set, Xie took the match and sent Millburn to the Tournament of Champions with a 6-3 victory.
"I wasn't sure (if my match was the clincher)," said Xie. "I was looking over and I figured it out eventually. I was really tired from playing the first match; I was running a lot in that. I came out strong and I finished strong. He really stepped it up after the second set. He came out really strong for the rest of the match, he really made me work. He just changed it up, (hitting it) higher and deeper."
Following a terrific showing in the group finals, the Millers will now face either Chatham, New Providence or Westfield in the Tournament of Champions, which begins next week.
"They reseed it, I don't know who we'd be playing," said Wickenheisser. "We'd probably be a one or two seed."
