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After a win over Montville to begin the week, the Woodstock Academy boys’ tennis team was cruising along at 7-1.
Then, reality hit.
“The boys were a little shell-shocked,” said Woodstock Academy coach Ann Rathbone. “They were cruising right along and then they hit some real teams and it was an eye opener to say the least.’
The Centaurs fell to East Lyme, 7-0, April 30 and Stonington followed that up with a 6-1 victory over the Centaurs May 1.
But the Woodstock Academy players were not fazed.
They rallied May 4and came away with a 7-0 victory over Waterford at Killingly High School.
“They are resilient guys. They got back on track and now they know what they have to work on to get ready for the postseason,” Rathbone said.
The bookend victories last week raised the Centaurs record to 8-3 overall and 3-1 in ECC Division II.
Things started well for Woodstock Academy with a 5-2 victory over Montville April 29.
David Fleck and Luigi Boselli both remained undefeated at the time. Fleck downed C.J. Jaskiewicz 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 singles and Boselli took the No. 3 singles match, 6-2, 6-2 over Jason Chen. Riley Douglas also prevailed at No. 2 singles, 6-0, 6-1.
The Centaurs top doubles team, Aidan Stewart and Stefan Chervenkova also kept their spotless record intact with a 6-1, 6-1 straight set win over Jae Seung Kim and Cheuk Hei Chan.
But those undefeated records disappeared against the Vikings.
Assistant coach Siana Green was texting Rathbone during the match at East Lyme.
“She was telling me that ‘These guys are really good,’ I expected that. (East Lyme) is the cream of the crop in the (ECC),” Rathbone said.
The singles players only took six games from East Lyme, Boselli had three of them in a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Sujesh Kurumbail.
Chervenkova and Stewart were blanked by Jonathan Tan and Guillem Colon in their No. 1 doubles match.
The Centaurs could only do one thing – move on. Unfortunately, the Bears were waiting to pounce next. This time, the Centaurs took at least one match.
The No. 3 doubles team of Evan Haskins and Joe Zhou downed Alex Mann and Justin Johannsen 6-2, 6-4.
Fleck battled but lost to Jake Stiger 6-4,6-2 and Boselli put up a tussle before losing to Nathan Gonzalez, 6-4, 6-4.
Those close losses and the win at No. 3 doubles gives Rathbone some optimism that Woodstock Academy might have a shot at Stonington.
The loss dropped the Centaurs behind the Bears (3-0) in the Eastern Connecticut Luigi competed hard so that’s a good sign. Any given day in tennis, people can win Conference Division II standings.
“To get that split is a goal,” Rathbone said. “or lose, it’s a very mental sport. If we catch a break, who knows? We have the end of the year coming, (Advanced Placement) testing, senioritis, all kind of things can kick in. We just have to be ready to go when we play Stonington (on May 18 at Killingly) again.”
Fleck accomplished something he previously had not done.
He finally overcame Waterford’s Fadi Hage in a singles match, 6-3, 6-2.
The two had been playing one another since they were freshman and Hage has always had the best of it until May 4.
Riley Douglas and Boselli also won their singles matches in straight sets while Matt Tiffany had to go three to get his win.
The Centaurs doubles teams surrendered only six games in the three matches played to complete the sweep of the Lancers.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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