Ramapo Tennis Falls Short of State Title Game

The Ramapo boys tennis team fell to Millburn 3-2 Thursday in the the Group III state semifinals at Mercer County Park.

The Raiders (20-4) looked good early on, as the first two singles recorded points against their counterparts. Senior Christian Carcione, playing first singles, and his sophomore brother Jonathan notched 6-3, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-1 victories, respectively. Junior Taimi Ando, though, fell in dramatic fashion, 7-6, (7-5), 6-4, to Jared Wishnow for the team's first setback.

"Jonathan was our sure point," said Ramapo head coach Kim Marchese. "Everybody says their second doubles is very tough to beat. So I knew we had to focus on first doubles. You just can't give away too many points."

The first doubles put up a good fight, but fell just short. Seniors Adam Nolte and Alex Keane dropped their point 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. The second doubles didn't fare any better, as sophomore David Brooks and freshman Paul Singman fell 6-2, 6-1 to seal the deal.

"This was the year to get Millburn," said Marchese. "When you look at this team from our first scrimmages in March, I hadn't really realized how far we would get this year. Four kids playing doubles this year that had never started doubles before. The whole year they're constantly going against teams that have veteran players, in the end they were either beating these guys or going three sets with them. I'm just really proud of what this team has accomplished. It's very unfortunate we couldn't get this one for icing on the cake."

A strong consolation for the Raiders could be that the Lancers eventually won the Group III finals later Thursday and will advance to the Tournament of Champions, which will be held next week.

"It'll take awhile for some of these kids to recover but you have to keep in perspective all the things they've accomplished this year," said Marchese. "I've got four solid kids coming back, we'll see what happens with the rest of the team."