Thursday, May 17, 2012

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Sean Kim teamed with Joseph Bongiorno to win at second singles for Old Tappan, which reached the North 1, Group 3 state sectional final for the first time with a 4-1 win over Ramapo on Wednesday afternoon.

OLD TAPPAN – After a slow start the Ramapo boys tennis team has been on fire for the better part of a month. Since opening the season with six losses in their first 11 matches, the Green Raiders had won 10 of their last 11, came from almost out of left field to win the Groups 3 & 4 Bergen County team title this past weekend and played themselves into the North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinals.

But waiting for Ramapo when it got there was a team that has had its number all season. The lone loss in Ramapo's recent stretch of success was to Old Tappan, which swept the season series from the Raiders. And Old Tappan has waited a long time for the opportunity it was presented with on Wednesday afternoon and did not waste it. With four of its seven players having played four years of varsity tennis, it was now or never and with four straight-set victories in the five flights, the Golden Knights won a spot in the state sectional final for the first time in the program's history with a 4-1 win that had everyone off the court in little over an hour.

“It's a culmination of hard work over the last four years. Four years ago when I had this good as freshman I thought this might be possible, but they had to stay humble and work hard and there is still a lot of luck involved to make it happen,” said Old Tappan head coach Eric Delaney. “This is the product of hard work and kids believing in themselves and each other. To play this well with the expectations we had on us and to do it against a team as good as Ramapo and playing as well as Ramapo was is very rewarding.”

Jonathan Carcione provided Ramapo with its lone point with a 6-1, 6-0 win at first singles.

And it wasn't like Ramapo had run out of gas and lost in a dust cloud of unforced error and double faults. In fact, Raiders head coach Kim Marchese saw little that might have suggested that his team gave anything away.

“Some of my guys did not play all that bad, but if they missed one or two easy opportunities it hurt them. We could not afford to miss anything that was easy today,” said Marchese. “There are days we can comeback from mistakes, but not today. My hat is off to Old Tappan. They got the job done today.”

The first players in the win column were the Old Tappan second doubles combination of the Sean Kim and Joseph Bongiorno. In 58 minutes, they polished off a 6-0, 6-1 victory Charlie Yang and Tim Lee. In that match, the Knights did a good job of keeping the ball in play and only going for winners after they had moved their opponents into disadvantageous positions. Kim and Bongiorno picked off the corners only after forcing Yang and Lee into abandoning them.

“Our plan with my partner J.B. was to set the point up. We go for the big shots only on times when we could hit stronger. Both of us play well together, we set each other up and we won points,” said Kim. “When we won and got the first point it set the tone for the rest of the team. When the other guys out there saw that we had our first team point it was kind of like a moral boost and kept everybody motivated.”

Alexander Castro, one of Old Tappan's four seniors, posted a 6-4, 6-1 win at second singles.

Shortly after Kim and Bongiorno closed the gate behind them on the way off the court, Jonathan Carcione was just about to do the same thing at the other end. Carcione, who won a county title at first singles this past weekend, closed out the team state playoff portion of his dominant high school career in familiar style. Before heading off to defend his individual state title, the Princeton bound Carcione used his powerful serve and bruising ground strokes to post a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Sakura Yamaj and briefly tie the team score at 1-1.

But in the other two singles matches, where Old Tappan has two seniors in Alexander Castro and Joon Koo Lee, the Knights sewed up the victory. After battling through a tough first set where he made an early break stand up, Alexander Castro posted a 6-4, 6-1 win over Danny Lee at second singles. Lee is a player brimming with confidence after winning a county title at third singles and he held off a second set challenge from Stephen Deckoff to win 6-2, 6-4.

“I was coming into this match a couple of days after winning a county title and that let me know that I just had to stick to the way I play tennis and stayed focused and that would be enough for me to win. I was able to keep him on the move and not let him set up points,” said Lee. “We've always been rivals with Ramapo and in past years we have struggled against them. We'd either lose 2-3 or win just barely 3-2, so to beat them three times this season and to win 4-1 today really helps our confidence because we know what kind of team they have.”

Ramapo's Shant Maroosian returing a shot during play at first doubles.

Old Tappan's other point came from the all-senior first doubles team of Brandon Heller and Joshua Schuman, who held off Ramapo's Luke Imperatore and Shant Marootian 6-2, 7-5 in what was an entertaining second set.

Ramapo, which has two league matches left on its schedule, fell to 15-8 on the season and still has an earned sense of accomplishment after winning a county title and making it as far as the state sectional semifinals.

“I can't be more proud of what this team has done. We have four kids that really hadn't played in a starting varsity position. We had a kid from JV [Deckoff] go in to play well at third singles, and JV kids [Imperatore and Marootian] move in a play well at first doubles, and second doubles kids [Yang and Tim Lee] who were alternates last year,” said Marchese. “The fact that they were able to compete at this level against a team like Old Tappan shows that they have improved throughout the year and, as a coach, that is all that you can ask for.”

Meanwhile, the ride continues for Old Tappan, which improved to 20-2 on the season and will play the winner of Thursday's match between Montville and Tenafly for the North 1, Group 3 state sectional title. Another program first is just one win away for the Golden Knights.

“We were certainly not overconfident, but we thought coming into this season that we could do this and to get this far with all of the pressure that the kids put on themselves say a lot,” said Delaney. “But it gets no easier now and it is going to be a tough match no matter who we play, Tenafly or Montville. The way I look at it is that you just go out there and play the ball and you don't play the opponent. If we can do that, we should have a chance against anyone.”

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