Prep tennis claims D1 North crown

For the fist time in a decade, the St. John’s Prep tennis team is the king of Division 1 North.Lynn’s Mike Beluch and partner Mark Corvi set the tone with a 6-4, 6-3 win at second doubles as the Eagles bested Lexington, 3-2, to clinch the North title for the first time since 2001.”We’ve had good teams in the last few years, but a lot of the other teams have been a little better than us,” Prep coach Mark Metropolis said. “This year the kids worked hard over the preseason and by coming into the season ready, we’ve gotten to this point.”It seemed almost fitting that Beluch and Corvi would set the tone for the 19-1 Eagles as Metropolis noted they had been doing that all season.”In all our big matches, they’ve come up huge for us,” Metropolis said. “They really set the tone for us.”The point became even more important when Cam Trosin went down at first singles, but the Eagles stayed the course and got the decisive points from Spencer Canny at second singles (7-6, 6-3) and Chris Toner in third singles (6-0, 6-2) to push them over the top.”This year, we have the depth that helped us get over the hump,” Metropolis said.One of the few blemishes for the Eagles on Friday came when Jon Corvi and Brad Noyes lost a three-setter at first doubles that marked the duo’s first loss of the season.