The visiting St. John’s Prep tennis team (14-0) may have shut out Lynnfield, 5-0, Thursday afternoon, but coach Joe Dunn Sr. said his Pioneers (11-1) had no reason to hang their heads.
Both teams came into the match undefeated, but the Division 1 Eagles’ depth and firepower were too much for the Division 4 Pioneers to handle.
“Nobody gave up and they all played the best they could against one of the strongest teams, if not the strongest team, in the state,” Dunn said. “We knew it would be a tough challenge, but there are many lessons to take away from this match, especially when it comes to being able to take it to another level in the state tournament.”
The match was old-home week for most of the players, many of whom grew up learning the game at Northeast Tennis Center and attended school together in Lynnfield. Three Prep players live in Lynnfield. Suffice it to say, there were a lot of heartfelt hugs and wishes, but once the players hit the hardcourts, it was game on.
While four matches were decided at love, the marquee match of the afternoon was the first singles battle between the Eagles’ John DeAngelis and the Pioneers’ junior captain Shea McCarthy, who moved up from second singles to fill in for senior captain Dan Levin, who was ill. The match featured great shotmaking and brilliant defense on the part of both players from start to finish. Trailing 0-5 in the first set, McCarthy took the next three sets to close to 3-5, but DeAngelis recovered to take the next set and take a 1-0 lead.
McCarthy fell behind, 3-4, in the second set, but took the next three to tie the match at 1-1 and force a tie-breaker for the third set, won by DeAngelis, 10-7, to close out the match.
“Honestly, I felt that if Shea had won the tie-breaker, he would have won the match,” Dunn said. “He is playing at another level higher than what he normally does. He plays at a high level normally, but he’s even playing higher than that today. This is brilliant tennis. I’m glad to see these two play.”
McCarthy said that while the Pioneers were challenged, “We have the experience of playing against really good players. This is a confidence booster in that we can walk into any match knowing we have played the best, so even though we lost, this was just what we needed.”
Prep junior captain and Lynnfield resident Jack Prokopis defeated Raffi Arkun, who normally plays doubles, in the second singles match, 6-0, 6-0. Luke Free followed suit in third singles with a win over Lynnfield’s Russell Kasdon.
Prokopis’ twin brother and fellow captain Luke Prokopis and Boris Kouzminov defeated Brendan Sokop and Slate LoPilate at first doubles and Mark McDuffy, also of Lynnfield, defeated Shlok Kudrimoti and Kurt Rothermund at second doubles.
Lynnfield’s next match is Saturday at home against Newburyport (10 a.m.).
“That’s a really important match,” Dunn said. “We have to play well the rest of the season and this match today helps set that up.”
The Prep’s next match is Monday at defending Division 1 state champion Lexington, the team that eliminated The Prep in last year’s Final 4.
