DANVERS — The No. 2 St. John’s Prep tennis team took care of business Friday afternoon, defeating No. 10 Newton North 3-0 to earn a trip to the Division 1 Final Four.
Head coach Mark Metropolis was happy to get back to the Final Four, somewhere the Eagles haven’t been since 2011.
“It’s a great feeling to be in the Final Four,” Metropolis said. “It’s been a few years.”
When asked what makes his group special, Metropolis pointed to hard work from the very first day of practice.
“These kids came to practice every day and worked very hard,” Metropolis said. “After two hours of practice, I’d tell the kids to go home and they all say they want to stay to win one more point. Every kid wants to stay until they win that final point. They’re probably one of the hardest-working teams I’ve ever had.”
Well, that hard work paid off Friday as both doubles teams won their matches comfortably.
First doubles Ben Liptak and Luke Prokopis won their match 6-0, 6-1, while Mark McDuffee and Luke Free won theirs 6-1, 6-0 to give the Eagles an early advantage – needing just one of the three singles matches to clinch victory.
“My doubles have only lost one match all year between the two of them,” Metropolis said. “They lost to a very strong Wellesley [team]. Other than that, we won every doubles match. Our doubles are very strong.”
Luckily for the Eagles, third singles John DeAngelis won his match in straight sets (6-3, 6-1) to clinch an early victory for the hosts.
“He [DeAngelis] definitely came to play,” Metropolis said. “He really focused and was hitting his spots. He came ready.”
First singles Paul Neal (0-6, 3-4) and second singles Jack Prokopis (3-6, 6-3, 5-1), unfortunately, couldn’t finish their matches – not because they lost to Newton North, but rather, to Mother Nature.
Nevertheless, Metropolis liked the battle Neal and Prokopis showed during the match.
“They’re both battlers. Everyone battles and everyone plays hard,” Metropolis said. “Even though the match was won, they continued to play. Jack lost the first set, but he battled back and he was winning the tiebreaker before the rain came.”
Prep will now travel to Newton South to face No. 3 Lexington at 4:30 p.m. Monday, and some history awaits between the two programs.
Lexington is a familiar foe that got the better of the Eagles earlier in the season, defeating Prep 3-2 in a close match. Despite losing, Metropolis feels confident heading into Monday.
“If they come in with the same lineup, I feel like we have a good chance,” Metropolis said. “We’re going in with our best lineup.”
