2018 Varsity Tennis
Our boys repeated as NYCAL league season champions and NYCAL tournament champions this season, extending the success of Browning tennis over the last eight years.
We finished the season undefeated in our league, losing only three matches for a record of 12-3. One of those losses resulted from five players being too sick to play. Our other losses were against IVY league teams Riverdale and Trinity. Our players probably gained more from those losses, since they get better by playing better players. Our last match of the season against Trinity left us revved up and ready to go for the tournament, where we won 19 of our 20 matches and swept league archrival Columbia Prep, 5-0.
Every member of the team played in a match, thereby gaining important experience; it is one thing to hit balls during practice with your teammates, but it is a completely different feeling to play in a match where points count. Our players embraced sportsmanship in learning both how to lose well and how to win well.
Highlights include the “tweener” lob by Oliver to get match point against UNIS; Nick winning a long singles match against a “pusher” and then playing and winning a doubles match a few minutes afterwards; Coach K being serenaded on the bus by the boys to the “Titanic” song; and Sharif, who was down 0-40 after three double-faults serving for the tying set against LFNY and crediting Oliver, who yelled “show the bicep,” as inspiration to then serve an ace and eventually win the game. He and Teddy went on to win the match in a super tiebreaker.
While we say goodbye to one senior starter, Teddy Florescu, both the turnout for tryouts and our younger players on the team in Forms I & II indicate a strong future for Browning tennis.
Be proud and get your Panther Grrr on! Let’s Go!! Here is our line-up from this season:
# 1 singles - Oliver “Cool Ranch” Obeid / Undefeated in league play and won the #1 singles tournament title
# 2 singles - Ian “TBD” Schunk / Won the #2 singles tournament title
# 3 singles - Nico “Grand Master Pi” (aka GMP) Laffont / Undefeated in league play
# 1 doubles - Teddy “GQ” Florescu & Sharif “Reef” Nsouli / Won the #1 doubles tournament title
# 2 doubles - Nick “Untuckit” Hurley & Kabir “K Squared” Kurani - Nick was undefeated in league play / Kabir and Nick won the #2 doubles tournament title
Reserves: Dylan “Beast” Steck, Liam “Icon” Lis, Teo “I Love Bagels” Nickola, Eli “Lob God” Greenberg, Luca “StayPuft” Nickola, and Gabriel “Buzzer Beater” Soluri
Coach Klein
