2006 Boys Union County Tennis

The week did not get off to a rousing start for veteran Westfield Tennis Coach George Kapner when he found out that his number one player, Sophomore Kevin Shallcross had broken his toe in a non tennis related incident. For almost any other team it would have time to panic, but Kapner thought his squad was deep and balanced enough to withstand

the setback.

The Blue Devils more than vindicated their coach’s confidence with a dominating performance to easily defend their team title in the Union County Tennis championships, contested Thursday and Friday at the Donald Van Blake Courts in Plainfield. The Blue Devils piled up 96 out of 100 points to 72 for second place Summit to win their 26^th championship.

Only a victory by Sophomore Ryan Krueger of Scotch Plains Fanwood at first singles prevented a clean sweep of all five flights by the youthful Blue Devils, who featured two freshmen, three sophomores and only one senior.

“It shows the depth we have to be able to withstand the loss of Kevin and win the way we did,” said Kapner, who won his ninth county tennis title and 25^th overall county title.

“When I heard the news, I was upset for Kevin but I thought the team was deep enough to win. This was just an incredible effort by our entire team”

“I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to play but the team winning helps make things a little easier,” said Shallcross, who expects to be back in two weeks.

“I knew the guys would come through.”

With Shallcross out, each singles player moved up. Second singles Ravi Netravali took over Shallcross’ spot and upset the defending champion Kevin Chen of New Providence in the semi finals before losing in the finals to Krueger.

After a tense three set semi final match, the usual third singles James Chou won his final match easily over Val Mekhanic of New Providence 6-1, 6-3 at second singles...Chou succeeds Shallcross as the second consecutive Blue Devil to win at second singles as a freshman.

At third singles, another freshman Dean Thompson, normally a first doubles player surprised top seeded John Anguione of Summit 7-6, 6-2 in a rousing match that was the final contest to end.

This years’ tournament was a far cry from a year ago when the team title came down to the final second doubles match between Westfield and Summit but like they did in 2005 the Blue Devils swept the doubles crowns.

Junior Jack Trimble, a member of the clinching doubles team along with the graduated Andrew Levy had played the entire season at first doubles with Thompson. With Shallcross hurt, he teamed with senior Lee Bernstein, who had played first doubles a year ago but has not always been among the top seven this year. Bernstein teamed with Brian Kender to win the first doubles title last year.

Since the two had not played doubles together until earlier in the week, their performance was extra impressive. Their easy straight sets 6-3, 6-2 victory over Zach Goff and Mike Shea of Summit, clinched the team title and was a testament to quick acclimation.

“Doubles is all about communication, so we tried to get as familiar as we could playing together in practice this week,” said the 6' 7 Trimble.

Kapner was able to keep his second doubles team, Evan Eisenberg and Matt Gralla together and the top seeded duo cruised through three matches, without losing a set, including a 6-3,6-3 win over Alex Kramer and Dan Gledhill of Summit in the finals.

“All year I have said that there is very little difference between our fourth through tenth players and this tournament proved that,” added Kapner.

“Scoring 96 points out of 100 under any circumstances is pretty special. Needless to say, I am very pleased.”

Ryan Krueger wins 2006 Union County Singles title

In a first singles final that would have been incomprehensible just five days earlier, Ryan Krueger of Scotch Plains Fanwood completed a remarkable two days of tennis by routing fellow sophomore Ravi Netravali of Westfield 6-3,6-3 Friday in the Union County tennis finals last Friday at Donald Van Blake Courts in Plainfield.

Coming in as the third seed, Krueger avenged an earlier season defeat by dispatching second seeded David Richards of Summit in the semi finals that morning and fourth seeded Netravali shocked top seed and defending champion Kevin Chen of New Providence 6-2, 6-4. Normally the Blue Devils’ second singles player, Netravali was pressed into the top spot when Westfield first singles Kevin Shallcross broke his toe in a non tennis accident last Sunday.

Krueger becomes the first Raider player since Arjun Viswanathan in 1995 to win the Esposito trophy, named after the former Scotch Plains Fanwood coach and teacher. The only other Raider champion was Jeff Miller, a three time champion between 1967-9.

Krueger, who lost to Shallcross in the second singles finals last year, credited his sterling performances to eliminating mistakes in his game and showing more patience.

“My goal against both players was to keep the ball in play as long as possible and not make unforced errors,” said Krueger.

“Ryan has a great all around game and is in great condition so it was important for him to have long rallies and make his opponent beat him,” said Raiders’ coach Sandra Miller.

In the finals Krueger took command immediately by breaking Netravali in the first game and broke again in the fifth game for a 4-1 lead. Krueger was especially effective returning Netravali’s strong first serve and hitting an array of powerful deep shots.

“Ravi has a great first serve and it was important for me to make a decent return. That was my focus,” said Krueger

Serving for the set, Krueger lost his serve for the only time in the match but bounced back to break Netravali again and take the set.

“That was the key game,” said Krueger.

“I didn’t want to let him get back to 5-4. It was important to close him out there.”

In the second set, Krueger again took the early lead and continued attacking with his assortment of strokes. At 5-3, Krueger showed no jitters and impressively served out the match at love, finishing the match with a deep forehand that Netravali hit into the net.

“He played a great match and deserved to win” said Netravali.

“He never gave me a chance to get in the match.”

Veteran Westfield Coach George Kapner had nothing but praise for Netravali,

“I knew Ravi would step and play a great tournament for us. He was fantastic against Chen in the semi finals, beating the defending champion,” said Kapner,

“Sometimes a young player has trouble putting two great matches together. This is taking nothing away from Ryan who played a great tournament and is an impressive player,”

Helping Krueger’s cause was older brother Jason, who had played singles for the Raiders between 2002 and 2005. Now a freshman engineering student at Cornell the elder Krueger had driven the 225 miles from Ithaca late Thursday night to help assist his brother.

“Having Jason was a great help. He gave me a lot of great advice and helped me stay focused,” said Ryan Krueger.

And what pearls of wisdom did big brother offer?

“I just told Ryan to believe in your strokes and not try to win the points immediately. The longer the rally the better chance he would win the point,” said Jason Krueger.

“I am very proud of him,”

2006 Westfield Boys Preview

It took Westfield seven years to wrest the Union County Tennis title back from Summit in 2005 and with many of the key contributors returning, augmented by a talented freshman class, it appears like the Blue Devils are not in any hurry to relinquich it any time soon.

Even the normally cautious coach George Kapner admits with two sophomores and a freshman manning the singles positions the next few years look pretty bright .

The newcomers are so impressive that one of the heroes of the county tournament, second doubles player Jack Trimble, is no lock to make the starting lineup. Trimble combined with departed senior Andrew Levy to win the second doubles title in a three set thriller to provide the margin of victory in Westfield’s 81-76 triumph a year ago.

Trimble is competing with fellow junior Jon Ramalho and freshman Dean Thompson for the second doubles spot.

First singles player Alec Wasserman and first doubles player Brian Kender are the only other graduation losses but Kender’s partner on the championship first doubles team, senior Lee Bernstein will return to first doubles joined by another freshman Greg Luppescu.

The third impressive freshman James Chu will start the season at third singles. Sophomore Kevin Shallcross, the defending county champion at second singles moves up to first singles and fellow sophomore Ravi Netravali, the runner-up at third singles moves up to second singles.

“There is little difference between the fourth player down through the tenth player on this team, so I am taking my time finding the doubles teams that provide us with the best chance for success later in the season,” said Kapner.

Kapner has once again presented his squad with as tough a schedule as possible.

“I have always believed that you must play the best to be the best. In addition to our normal rigorous schedule, we have applied for the two most competitive regular season tournaments, Newark Academy and Delbarton in addition to our own one day tournament to be held on September 29th at the Westfield Tennis Club on North Chestnut. .”

The competition in the county continues to be Summit. The competition in the section is definitely Bridgewater, the team that we lost to in last year's sectional final. Our goals are to repeat as conference and county champions as well as to capture the sectional championship and to go on to win the first WHS group IV championship since the middle 1980's.”

2006 Scotch Plains Boys Preview

It seems perfectly appropriate that the Scotch Plains Fanwood Boys Tennis Team will be playing its home matches on the newly refurbished La Grande Park courts since almost everything about the team is new including the coach, Sandra Miller.

After replacing long time girls Girl’s Tennis mentor Sue Allen last fall and leading the girls to a 10-7 record, Miller takes over for Mark Cunnington and feels that she has circumvented the usual learning curve new coaches face.

“I am finding that dealing with the administrative end of coaching is much easier since I coached the girls in the fall,” said Miller.

“My comfort level is very high. I even know most of the bus drivers and now know most of the directions to the various schools. I can navigate our school web page and find the tennis schedule within seconds.” added Miller.

The one major similarity between the 2005 and 2006 Raider teams will be the surname of the first singles, Krueger, but even that has changed as sophomore Ryan Krueger replaces his older brother Jason, a four-year starter now at Cornell.

Ryan had a strong freshman season at second singles, finishing runner-up in the Union county tournament, the highest finish by a Raider player but he knows the competition at first singles will be much tougher.

“I expect to get high quality of play from most teams. These players

should be much better than players I competed with last year,” said Krueger.

“I suspect I will have to dig down even deeper in order to achieve my goal.”

After practicing most days last year with his older brother, Krueger has been hitting this spring with the only other experienced member from last year, fellow sophomore Scott Leyden. Krueger is hoping that he can help Leyden make a big move this year from second doubles to second singles.

Miller, the boys junior varsity coach last year at Watchung Hills scheduled her old school for a scrimmage and even though the Raiders were blanked 5-0, she saw many positives that came out of the contest.

“Watchung has two national ranked USTA juniors, the Wolski brothers.

Ryan played well but lost and. Scott went to 5-7 in the first set before losing,” said Miller.

“Ryan Krueger showed some very nice tennis in his match against Watchung Hills. He was able to stay in every point. In our second match against Livingston, he won easily 6-1, 6-0, and was able to show fortitude in closing out the match,” said Miller.

“I was impressed with his focus and his ability to close out the match. His game will only improve over the next few years”

Although just a sophomore, Krueger has willingly accepted the mantle as team leader and is optimistic that the team will improve as they become more experienced.

“Our team will struggle more and leadership is required in order to keep

everyone in line,” said Kruger.

“As for players on other teams, better players keep coming up and create new challenges the team.”

With such a young team, Miller has spent much of the pre season teaching.

“I am teaching the boys doubles and how to return with an aggressive forehand when possible, however, they are all very young,” said Miller.

Another sophomore Michael Dejovich figures to play third singles with two more sophomores, Michael De Vizio and Ted Rosenblatt making up the first doubles pairing and seniors Ron Stein and David Ginsberg follow them.

Miller’s major goal is to have every team member play with a consistent serve and to be able to return serves. With such modest objectives, Miller realizes this season might be difficult.

“I'll be happy with a few wins over some of our conference schools,” said Miller, who is still getting used to the differences between coaching boys and girls.

.

“The biggest challenge in coaching the boys tennis is that they did not

know me. The girls knew me as a mom of one of their starting varsity

girls and the JV tennis coach,” said Miller.

“The girls knew to listen when I gave them a few tips to improve their game.

The boys can see that I can play when I join them on the courts and

they are learning that I know a thing or two about tennis. In general

the boys think they know everything about tennis and try to use power

to kill the ball, their opponent and the point.”