The Boys Tennis team has continuously grown in both size and skill over the last three years. Less than ten years ago, very few people around town even knew that West Milford High School had a tennis team.
The last time the boys had a winning record was in the spring of 2012, thirteen years ago. The boys’ record back then was 13-6, and in the last three years, the team had a combined total record of 14-39.
This year the team had its best chance to win matches in a long time. As a team, the boys set the goal of winning at least 12 of their 21 matches. They also believed that everyone could and should have made it past the first round of the County Tournament.
Ken Canali is the team’s head coach, assisted this year by three captains, Ethan Garcia, Lucas White, and Chris Rosner.
There are five different places on the team, three singles and two doubles. Lucas White is first singles, Ethan Garcia second, and John Parkin is third. First doubles is the duo of Brendan Garcia and Christopher Rosner, with Brent Telesmanich and Maximus Ilyinskyy rounding out the team at second doubles.
The team opened their season with a bang against Paterson Eastside on April 1, with all singles players and doubles teams dominating their opponents.
Brendan Garcia was unable to play, however the duo of Brent Telesmanich and Chris Rosner played very well, winning both sets by a score of six games to none.
The boys then suffered a tough loss as they hosted a strong Fair Lawn team on April 3rd, losing 5-0. Ethan Garcia fared the best, winning his first set 7-5 before losing both the second set (6-1) and 10-point tiebreaker (10-7). The team next hosted, and swiftly beat, the Passaic Valley team, winning by a 5-0 score.
Following this victory, the boys traveled down to Wayne Valley to take on the Indians. The boys fought hard, but once again fell by a score of 5-0. Both Ethan Garcia (3-6, 4-6) and John Parkin (1-6, 2-6) did what they could to compete, ultimately falling short.
The Highlanders got back on track on April 14, as they once again hosted Passaic Valley. After they swept the Hornets for the second time, they went to Lakeland and swept the Lancers as well.
The team then faced a strong Passaic Tech rival, being swept, with close, hard-fought match-ups by Lucas White and Ethan Garcia.
Trying to get back on pace for twelve wins, the Highlanders hosted Passaic, winning 4-1. This gave them a record of 5-3, and the team looked well on their way to achieving this goal.
However, the team lost the following three matches, dropping them to 5-6 before going into the seeding meeting for the County Tournament, where each position hoped to secure higher seeds.
Despite the additional losses, the Highlanders had all three singles players earn spots as top five seeds. First singles player Lucas White earned the fifth seed, while both Ethan Garcia (second singles) and John Parkin (third singles) earned the fourth seed, and a first round bye.
In the County Tournament, the first two rounds are played as eight-game pro sets. This means that the first player to win eight (or nine) games by two wins the match.
If the score is tied at eight to eight, then a seven-point tiebreaker is played. A seven-point tiebreaker is one game that is simply first to seven points, with the winner having to win by two points.
The semifinal and championship rounds are then played as best-of-3 sets. First to win six or seven games by two games wins the set, but if the score is tied at six, it goes to a seven-point tiebreaker.
If both players win a set, then there can either be a third set, or a ten-point tiebreaker to determine the match’s victor.
Unfortunately, the first doubles team of Brendan Garcia and Chris Rosner lost in the first round to Clifton’s Om Rana and Daven Alib, by a score of 8-5. The pair found themselves down 1-6 quickly and fought their way back before ultimately falling short.
The second doubles team, Telesmanich and Ilyinskyy, won their first round matchup over Clifton’s Ian Raghunandan and David Georges, 8-1.
The ninth seeded pair fell to the first seeded Wayne Hills duo, Nicholas Lynch and Matthew Weiner, 0-8. Lynch and Weiner would go on to win the Second Doubles County Finals.
After Parkin’s first round bye, he fought in his match til the end, but sadly lost by a score of 6-8 to Pompton Lakes’ Benjamin DeLalla.
As Lucas White was the fifth seed, he just missed earning a first round bye. However, he won his first match-up 8-1 over the player seeded fourteenth hailing from John F. Kennedy.
White then played the fourth seeded Shayan Ahsan of Pompton Lakes. White was losing 1-5 before winning the next four games to tie it at 5-5. He ultimately ended up dropping the next three games, getting bounced from the tournament.
Finally, second singles player Ethan Garcia, like Parkin, earned the fourth seed and a first round bye in the tournament. After a long wait, he found out he would be playing Pompton Lakes’ James Curran in the second round.
Garcia quickly won by a score of 8-1 and moved on to play number one seed and Second Singles County favorite, Aron Martin.
Garcia fought hard, but unfortunately was unable to execute his game plan. He fell to Martin, who won the tournament at second singles, by a score of 1-6, 2-6.
The Highlanders first match after the County Tournament was against Wayne Hills. The Patriots swept the Highlanders with John Parkin (1-6, 3-6) and first doubles team (0-6, 3-6) having the best day for the boys. They then took on St. Joe’s and lost a close match.
After that, the boys beat both Lakeland and Paterson Kennedy, before losing to Wayne Hills once again.
The boys managed to get into States as a team, and played Montville High School in the first round on Tuesday, May 20.
Unfortunately, the Highlanders lost 5-0, ending their first States run since the 2018-2019.
