Boys Varsity Tennis Falls to JJCR in Division 1 Sectional Tournament

Rye Boys Varsity Tennis fell to John Jay Cross River on Sunday in the Division 1 Sectional Tournament, ending a spectacular 13 – 1 season for the gemstones.

In the first round, Rye, the one seed because of their 13-1 record, had a bye. The second round they played Yorktown and won 7-0 on Friday at Manursing Island Club. After the heavy rain Saturday cancelled play, things got tight on Sunday.

Rye played John Jay Cross River at 11am at the Harrison High School courts. With the team tournament, the matches load onto the courts from the bottom up. Third, second, and first doubles and fourth singles hit the courts first. It was a day of tiebreakers and super tiebreakers for the match.

Ollie Lincoln and Luke Gordon (R) played Devon Kislin and Will Fenton (JJCR) at third doubles. They won the first set 6-4, lost the second 3-6, and lost the third set super breaker (5-10). Senior Cian Keegan and eighth grader Filip Glitterstam played second doubles vs. Colin Baird-Taylor and Ian Fernan. Rye won the first set 6-3 then pulled out a second set in a regular tiebreaker 7-6, (9-7).

First doubles Rye team of Henry Paul and Henry Bagley played Ian Rhodes and Guillaume Pestie. Rye lost the first set 3-6, made a comeback in the second 6-3, and lost in the super breaker (8-10). The other first round match was eighth grader Lou Kim-Reuter who played Johnny Marchini. Marchini won the first set 5-7, Kim-Reuter won the second with confidence 6-1. The super tiebreaker was stressful and Rye fell in that (5-10).

If a team wins four matches, the rest are pulled off and the match is over. Thankfully second doubles won, allowing Rye to play the top three singles matches. Down 1-3, number one singles player Nicolas Echlov beat Matthew Marchini soundly, 6-2, 6-3. Alex Gordon at third singles played Dylan Scott winning the first set 6-4, losing the second 3-6 sending them also into a super tiebreaker. Gordon won the breaker (10-4). That left the match at 3-3.

Number two singles, Matthew Templeman played Jordan Fiderer. Fiderer won the close first set 6-4. Templeman came back and took the second set 6-2. This sent the match into the fifth super tiebreaker of the match. John Jay won the breaker (10-7).

All players gave a fantastic effort and, although not the outcome we were looking for, John Jay squeaked out the win by about 2-5 points overall. JJCR headed to the finals of the Team Sectionals and played Scarsdale in Sunday afternoon. Scarsdale, one of the powerhouses in Section 1, won that match and will continue their quest in sub-regionals.