LYNNFIELD — The No. 3 Lynnfield boys tennis team made short work of it Thursday afternoon, dodging raindrops and cruising to a 5-0 win over the Bromfield School at the Lynnfield Middle School in the quarterfinals of the Division 4 state championship.
The Pioneers (18-1) will play the winner of Friday’s No. 2 Cohasset and No. 7 Nantucket match in the semifinals (TBD).
Shea McCarthy secured the game-winning third point, defeating Thaman Suy 6-0, 6-3 in second singles.
“We are very proud of this team as they put in the time and effort in the offseason to improve and they have played with confidence all season,” Coach Joe Dunn Jr. said. “We are all excited for the opportunity to compete in the semifinals again this year.”
No. 3 singles Shlok Kudrimoti put the Pioneers on the board with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Aadi Ravindran. He said his strategy was to keep the ball in play.
“When I had a short ball, I always put it deep. I didn’t try to hit a winner off it, I just set it up for the next volley and put that one away,” Kudrimoti said. “Every shot was working well for me except for maybe some of my approach shots that went to him, which wasn’t good. But I felt like a lot of my game has been improved today.”
The first doubles team of Rafik Khodr and Russell Kasdon made it 2-0 about five minutes later, winning in straight sets over Madison Sawyer and Conall Muhoz 7-5, 6-0.
“I think we were just a little more aggressive in the second set. We did a lot of volleying and didn’t let them control it as much,” Kasdon said.
Khodr said he’s been playing doubles with Kasdon for three years and finishing strong is their trademark.
“We each know what to expect because we’ve been together so long,” he said. “We usually start the match pretty slow but we eventually get going after that. This is pretty much the way it goes for us.”
Dan “no mercy” Levin defeated Tim Khuu 6-2, 6-0 at first singles. Levin said he was pleased with the way he played.
“Basically, everything went well. My forehand was good, my backhand was good and my serve return was good, especially because he was a lefty and lefties are tough to play against especially on the ad side but my backand worked very well today. My whole offensive game worked well I thought.”
Raffi Arkun and partner Brendan Sokop wrapped up the match with a 6-4 win over Albert Chen and Andrew Mirarchi at second doubles. Dunn said, unfortunately, Bromfield elected to not play a second set.
A Cohasset win Friday sets up a rematch of the 2022 semifinals, which the Pioneers won 5-0. Lynnfield lost in the final to Weston, 5-0.
“Cohasset is a very strong team. Last year, we did win, but the final score did not indicate how tough they were,” Dunn said. “There were some very close matches and a couple of them went to three sets. I don’t know if they are a stronger team or the same, but we will be ready for whoever we play in the final four.”
Assistant coach Tony Lena – yes, that Tony Lena – said you can never take anything for granted when you get to this level.
“Whenever you start a match you are nervous of course and then once they lose a game you go crazier about it,” the Lynn resident said. “But then they start to come back, but we have a good team. You never know what you are going to face. We have to focus only on what’s coming next and that’s what we will do.”
“We played Cohasset last year and they are a pretty good team,” Khodr said. “They have a pretty high ranking so I expect it will be a very good match with them if they win.”
McCarthy said he is not looking beyond the semifinals.
“You know, we’re not in the final yet and we have to focus on the semifinals,” McCarthy said. “I’m not focused on anything else, I’m just focused on the next match. My mind is only on one match at a time.”
Levin said no matter who the opponent is in the next round, “we just have to play our best. We don’t know who we are playing against, we just need to go out and try our best. That’s all we can ask for.”
