Boys Tennis Midseason Update

-By: Sean Gill-

Boys’ Tennis team is now 6-1 after dominating Bridgeport Central on Wednesday. (4/28) But although the team’s record is strong, there is room for it to get worse. The boys face quality teams in the coming weeks. Darien has played two quality teams in Ludlow and New Canaan. They didn’t have enough skill to take New Canaan who delivered a 5-2 defeat to the Wave’s record. However, Darien pulled off a spirited win over Ludlow on Tuesday. (4/27) as they were down 3-1 and won three straight matches to come away with the win. Senior captains Britt Gordon and Reilly Harmer won their singles matches, and the #2 doubles team of freshman Ryo Usami and junior Malcolm Willis came through with the tie-breaking win.
The goal for this season is first to qualify for the FCIAC tournament. Darien has to finish in the top 8 in the FCIAC to make it. The last two years Darien has been seeded 3 and 4 respectively, but despite a good start to the season continued success in the FCIAC will be tough this year.
“We’re in a really good place right now,” tennis coach Tom Stepkoski said. “We’re not as good as last year, we graduated half of the team, but hopefully we can make the FCIAC tournament.”
Come post-season time the State tournament will see a lot of new Darien faces, including #1 singles player Reilly Harmer, #2 singles player senior Captain Louie Rawden, #3 singles Britt Gordon, and #1 doubles Sam Jackson. Darien will be hoping for big contributions from these guys, but one player the Wave can rely on to come through in the clutch is #1 doubles player senior Captain Charlie Taylor, who has won the Class M Doubles title with Class of ’09 grad Martin Hannon two years in a row. (Hannon is now at Villanova) This year Taylor hopes to go undefeated with Sam Jackson in the regular season and win States.
As for the team’s hopes in the state tournament, Coach Stepkoski has a prediction.
“This post season we won’t be repeating as Class M Champions….because we just moved up to Class L,” he said.
The boys take on Ridgefield at Ridgefield on Thursday (4/29). Good luck to boys going into regular season and post-season. Photo: senior Sam Jackson in his #1 doubles match against Central.