Rams drop first league match, still in the hunt

One match does not a season make, but Thursday’s 4-3 loss to rival Methacton may be what stands between the Rams and the trophy when the race for the Pioneer Athletic Conference title shakes out.

“It’s pretty hard to take right now," said Rams head coach John Brennan. “As high as we were after , that’s as low as we are right now. We had several chances to win the match, a couple points here and there made the difference.”

Tyler Triolo made quick work of his first single match by white washing Keenan McCauliffe 6-0, 6-0 in straight sets to get the Rams on the board early. Triolo remained unbeaten in PAC-10 play and has to be one of the favorites as the PAC-10 singles championships get underway this morning at Perkiomen Valley High School at 9:00am.

“I would gladly exchange a singles championship for this team win today,” said Triolo. “I felt really good today, but that’s the way it goes in first singles. You never know who is going have one of those days where everything goes right or who’s going to get hot at some point. I was fortunate to get an early lead and dictate the play. I needed to win my match to make sure we got that one point.”

After dropping the first set to Nish Ravichondran 2-6, Gary Williams battled back, winning the second set 6-2 in second singles. After the other matches concluded it was Williams and Ravichondran who were the lone combatants left to play with the match knotted at 3-3.

Ravichondran took advantage of several unforced errors to escape Royersford with a 6-2 win in the deciding set, giving the Warriors a 4-3 team win.

“I had to capitalize on every chance he gave me,” said Ravichondran. “When it come down to match like that, every point is so important. In the one game where he double faulted twice, I told myself, 'This is my chance. I have to win this game to have any chance of winning my match.'”

“Wow, what a match,” said Methacton head coach Perry Delrossi. “I’ll give Spring-Ford all the credit in the world, they have improved so much from last year. Their doubles are so deep and Tyler (Triolo) is just the class of the league at first singles. I am so excited right now. We saw what everybody has been writing about Phoenixville and Spring-Ford being the teams to beat and it got us really fired up. We really wanted to prove ourselves.”

After allowing the Warriors second doubles team of Pete Donahue and Matt Connor to climb back into the match winning six straight game including a tie breaker, Rams senior Blake Emerson and Joey Graziadei bounced back to win the third set 6-2 to give the Rams a much needed win.

For the second consecutive week the team match came down to final grouping on the court thanks to the foundation built by the doubles teams. Emerson and Graziadei could easily have “phoned in” the final set following a tiebreaker loss in the second set, but instead chose to regroup and slam the door on a Warriors comeback attempt.

“We just used the time in between sets to reset ourselves,” said Emerson. “We knew what we had to do to win the match. It was a matter of settling down and playing our game, being a little bit less aggressive, and forcing them to make good shots.”

“We communicate very well as a team even though this is our first year playing together,” said Graziadei. “We talked and wanted to make sure we didn’t beat ourselves. We wanted to force them into mistakes, which worked out well. We needed to do whatever we could to get that point for the team. We have lost a couple of really close matches this year and we have learned from that.” 

Mike Powers and Austin Galaska dropped the first set of the day, but fought their way back, winning the second set by a 6-4 count. They used that momentum to toss a 6-0 shutout in the final set.

“I will be a Phoenixville fan next week when they make up their match with Methacton,” said John Brennan. “That’s what makes the PAC-10 such a great conference for tennis. On any given day, a team can step up and steal a win. Every point is so important during the match, especially against a great team like Methacton, Boyertown or Phoenixville.”

The Rams dropped to 4-1 in the league as Methacton improved to 2-0 with matches coming up with Boyertown and Phoenixville over the next week.

Box score- Methacton wins 4-3

First singles   -Tyler Triolo (SF) 6-0, 6-0 over Keenan McCauliffe (M)

Second singles - Nish Ravichondran (M) 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 over Gary Williams  (SF)

Third singles- Ryan Fields (M)  6-3, 6-2 over Kevin Chang (SF)

First doubles-   Matt Gehret and Derryk Williams (M) 7-6 (7-2), 7-5

                                                          over 

                                   Lewis Cooper  and Kyle Emerson (SF)

Second doubles- Blake Emerson and Joey Graziadei (SF) 7-5, 6-7 (7-2), 6-2

                                                            over

                                    Pete Donahue and Matt Connor

Third doubles-   Mike Powers and  Austin Galaska  (SF) 6-7, 6-4, 6-0

                                                            Over

                                    Cruz Marin  and  Justin Boman (M)

Fourth doubles-   Mike Magagna  and  Chris Lawley  (M) 7-6 (7-2), 6-1

                                                            Over

                                    Frankie Reppert and Piere Baty  (SF)