This Championship Season: MHS Tennis Wins Essex County Tournament

The Millburn High School boys’ tennis team was crowned Essex County champion on Saturday, after a decisive 4-1 victory over first-seed rival Livingston High School.

The triumph was especially sweet for two reasons: The tournament trophy had remained frustratingly out of reach of the Millers for three years running, and their defeat of the Lancers ended a streak of at least six straight losses to Livingston over the past two seasons.

In the semifinals earlier in the day, Millburn had shut out fourth-seeded Montclair 5-0, and Livingston had beaten third-seeded Newark Academy 3-2.

The Miller lineup against Montclair included Tyler Schick, Rob Xie, and Dean Koman at first, second, and third singles, respectively, Mac Johnson and Jared Wishnow at first doubles, and Nicky Chen-Schmidt and Jon Duan at second doubles. All courts won in straight sets.

The final against Livingston started off with an efficient performance by Johnson and Wishnow on the top doubles court, defeating rivals Spencer Luster and Kevin Sun, 6-1, 6-4.

Next, Teddy Moskovitz joined Chen-Schmidt at second doubles to defeat Lancers Adam Friedman and Greg Lubin 6-4, 6-4. Moskovitz took a brief medical timeout in the second set after gashing his scalp on the fence while running back for a lob.

All up to the singles

With two team points in Millburn’s favor, courtesy of the doubles pairs, all eyes turned to the three singles courts. Lancer Thomas Caputo was trailing Schick 3-2 in the first set but raised his game to take the next 10 games, winning 6-3, 6-0.

The score was now Millburn 2, Livingston 1. The championship lay on the racquets of the second and third singles players.

Xie, on court two, lost the first set to Livingston’s Varun Dyapa, while Koman, on court three, battled tooth and nail with Anthony Caputo. The tension was ratcheting up.

Then both Millers began their steady climb to victory. Koman managed a 7-5 first-set win, and Xie sharpened up his shooting, running Dyapa ragged and taking the second set 6-1. From then on, the balance tilted to Millburn.

Xie finished first, with another 6-1 set, and as soon as the last ball was hit, the Millburn crowd erupted. Millburn had won the crucial third team point.

Koman’s 6-4 second-set victory a few minutes later was icing on the cake.

Millburn had won the match, four courts to one, and with it, the Essex County Tournament trophy.

The Millers’ overall record now stands at 14-1.