Tennis Teams Makes History With Fourth Consecutive State Group Crown

The Blue Devils raised hell on the tennis courts Thursday.

Westfield (27-3) advanced to the Tournament of Champions following victories over Livingston (29-4) and Lenape (21-3) in the Group Finals at Mercer County Park, and made some history in the process.

"Winning is always a good thing," said Westfield head coach George H. Kapner. "All I ever do is ask the kids to play as well as they can, and they did that. This year it made us, for the fourth year in a row, the Group IV State champions. It's the first time in Westfield's history that we won four Group IV championships in a row. There's been some great teams in Westfield's history."

Adam Reich, playing third singles, defeated Livingston's Varyun Dyapa 6-1, 6-2 for the first point of the 3-0 victory in the group semifinals. Graeme Stahl and Alan Chu shut down Jesse Bloom and Ben Hanft in the first doubles 6-3, 6-2, and Tom Kowalski and Scott Thompson edged Kevin Sun and Matt Wolfe 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to round out the victory.

"There was a time in the middle of the match when I was very concerned, but second doubles got their act together and exploded," said Kapner. "Once they got going they just took over the match. First doubles won as they usually do."

After the Blue Devils had their clinching victory, Scott Bernstein, who was knotted with Thomas Caputo 4-6, 6-4 in first singles, had his match halted due to time restraints. Justin Snyder, who was struggling with Brandon Goldstein 3-6, 6-3, 2-3, also had his match stopped for the same reason.

It was much of the same in the 3-2 victory over the Indians in the finals. Bernstein dropped a pair of sets 6-2, 6-3 and Snyder fell 7-5, 7-6 (2). The third singles and both doubles stepped it up again, though. Reich routed Mike Perrone 6-2, 6-1, while both doubles teams lost a combined three sets, 6-1, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-1, respectively, to nail down the triumph.

"The bottom five kids, the bottom three positions were just dominant," said Kapner. "They were just dominant. Our strength is our depth. From my first guy to my sixth guy there's as little difference as you can imagine. If you put those names in a hat and just picked them out we'd beat almost anybody."

When the Tournament of Champions commences next week Westfield will play either Millburn, Chatham or New Providence, depending on seeding.

"We get to have a couple days off and relax," said Kapner. "Hopefully we're the team that steps up."