Tennis Team Prepares to do Battle in TOC Semis

Not much time to celebrate for the Westfield High School tennis team.
After winning a state group championship, it's time to chase the overall No. 1 ranking in the state.   

The Blue Devils will play Dwight Englewood this afternoon at 3 p.m. in the semifinals of the Tournament of Champions.

The game will be held at Mercer County Park in West Windsor. Millburn will
play top-seeded Chatham in the other semifinal. Westfield is the No. 2 seed.   

The winners then advance to the TOC final Thursday.   

The Blue Devils, 27-3, winners of the Tournament of Champions in 2007, beat Dwight Englewood 3-2 in the Bryant Bennett Memorial Tournament earlier this year. The Blue Devils became the first Westfied club to win four straight group titles and just the 11th tennis team in state history to do it since the state touranment began in 1967.   

"It's just like last year,'' said Westfield coach George Kapner, who had to call off a practice Tuesday because of rain. "It's really just about matchups.''   

Dwight Englewood is the third seed. Dwight Englewood's first singles team of Francis Loh and Eric Rosengart beat Westfield's Graeme Stahl and Alan Chu in the regular-season meeting. Westfield's Justin Snyder also won a tough match over Max Sachs.   

Kapner said that the Blue Devils will definitely have an edge this every player with
the exception of Chu and Tom Kowalski have experienced the Tournament of Champions.

Stahl and Snyder, first singles player Scott Bernstein and third singles player Adam
Reich have all. Last year, the Blue Devils were beaten 3-2 by Newark Academy in the TOC final.   

"I think we're playing with a great amount of energy,'' said Bernstein.