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- Category: Past Issues
Tennis team
goes down
in 2nd round
The season for the Woodstock Academy boys’ tennis team has come to a close.
The Centaurs battled in the Class M state tournament May 24 in Bristol and had some first round success only to see their state tournament hopes end by the second round.
In singles play. Junior David Fleck downed Andrew Saball of Sheehan in a first-round match, 6-2, 6-2.
It sent him into the second round against eighth-seeded Yefim Gorodnitskiy of Avon High School.
Gorodnitskiy prevailed in straight sets May 24, 6-1, 6-2, knocking Fleck from the state competition.
Riley Douglas won his first round match by default over Bethel’s Spencer Brown but was downed in the second round by third-seeded Nick Brennan of Tolland, 3-6, 0-6.
Luigi Boselli had to play an opening round match and advanced with an 8-2 win over Lyman Hall’s Colin DeBaise but Boselli was felled in the first round by Avon’s Arjun Chandra-Mohanty, the tournament’s second seed, 0-6, 0-6.
Matt Tiffany lost his opening round match.
On the doubles side, the Centaurs top team of Stefan Chervenkova and Aidan Stewart were seeded No. 14.
The duo won their first-round battle handily against a pair from Wolcott, Kenneth Hayes and Michael DosSantos, 6-0, 6-1.
The second round match was hardly that easy.
Brookfield’s Jacob Kelly and Marcus Lavery posted a 3-6, 0-6 win over the Centaurs duo.
Jai Abrams and Connor Quinn fought hard in their first-round match, taking Derek Diehl and Jared Lazarus of New Fairfield to tiebreakers in both sets, only to fall short, 7-6 (5) and 7-6 (3).
The third doubles team for Woodstock Academy, Evan Haskins and Joe Zhou, lost their first-round match, 6-3, 7-5 to a pair from East Haven.
Things were a little better in the Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament earlier in the week as both Fleck and the Chervenkova-Stewart doubles team advanced to the final four in each bracket.
But neither could get past some tough semifinal matches. Fleck was seeded fourth and downed Waterford’s Kevin McEntarfer, 8-1, in the first round.
The Centaurs second singles player, Douglas, also made it through the first round with a win over Lyman Memorial’s Ian Drum.
The other two Centaurs’ singles players were not so lucky.
Boselli, the Centaurs No. 4, fell to the sixth seed from East Lyme, Eric Gu, 1-8, and Jake Stiger from Ledyard took out Woodstock Academy’s third singles player, Tiffany, by that same score. Fleck continued with a second-round victory over Fitch’s Max Cartier, 8-1.
But the end of the road came for Douglas who was downed by the eighth seed from Stonington, Sean Bessette, 1-8. Fleck moved on to the quarterfinals where he downed Fadi Hage from Waterford, 6-3, 6-4. But Fleck was knocked off in the semifinals by top-seeded Finn Power, 0-6, 2-6.
“Pretty much every game went to deuce,” said Woodstock Academy assistant tennis coach Siana Green. Stewart and Chervenkova, seeded seventh, received a first-round bye in doubles play.
The Centaurs second doubles team of Quinn and Abrams had a first-round match and rolled past New London’s Sebastien Jn’Michel and Emmanuel Marin, 8-6.
Unfortunately, it meant they had to play Stewart and Chervenkova in a quarterfinal match.
Stewart and Chervenkova posted the 6-1, 6-1 victory.
But it meant a showdown with Stonington’s top doubles team and the Centaurs fell, 0-6, 1-6. The third doubles team of Haskins and Zhou won their first match against Ledyard’s duo of Reese Yaras and Damion DePaul, 8-1, but lost to Stonington’s Quinn Hamilton and Flip Aubrecht, 2-6, 4-6. Fleck and the first doubles team of Chervenkova and Stewart were both named ECC first team All-Stars. Douglas received honorable mention honors. Stewart was also the team’s ECC Scholar-Athlete recipient while the ECC sportsmanship award went to Boselli.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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