Thursday,
April 24, 2014
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Ari Jigargian was half of the Pascack Hills doubles team that clinched the deciding point in a 3-2 win over Mahwah that gave the Cowboys their 11th straight league title. |
MONTVALE – The players who come into the Pascack Hills' boys tennis program experience the best and worst parts of success . The best is being a key component to a team that is in the championship hunt year in and year out. On a current string of 10 straight league titles, the focus then shifts to not wanting to be part of the team that ends the streak. Such was the pressure upon the Cowboys on Wednesday when a dangerous Mahwah team, which beat Pascack Hills in the North 1, Group 2 state sectional final last year, came to Montvale with the outright Big North-Patriot Division title at stake.
Despite a largely inexperienced squad when it comes to big matches, the Cowboys battled back from adverse situations at both second singles and second doubles. Dimitri Chepkunov and the doubles tandem of Ari Jigarjian and Jon Rosenberg both fought off set points in the first to eventually score straight-set victories and lift Pascack Hills to its 11th straight league title with a 3-2 triumph over Mahwah in Montvale.
“It definitely feels great to beat a real good team like Mahwah and win the league title,” said Rosenberg. “This was a big goal of ours coming into the season. If we lost that first set, it would have taken a lot for us to win it in three sets. Coming back just to get to the tiebreaker and then winning it gave us a lot of confidence going into the second set.”
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Junior Brett Gilman scored a point for Mahwah at first singles with a
6-3, 6-2 victory. |
With a chill in the air and huge gusts of wind blowing throughout the match, a big factor was who adjusted to those factors the quickest. Pascack Hills got on the board first with a steady performance by Ethan Strauss at third singles. He limited his unforced errors and kept the ball deep in a 6-3, 6-3 win over Josh Pirog.
Mahwah junior Brett Gilman struggled mightily with the wind early in the first before tailoring his style of play to it and using it to his advantage. He took some pace off of his first serve and came to net often with lots of success. After trailing 3-2 in the first set, he rattled off 10 of the final 12 games, including four straight to close out the first set for a 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Jacob Kaminsky.
At second singles, Chepkunov was down 5-4 and a set point in the first set to Mahwah's Joe Tursi. With his back against the wall, Chepkunov was able to swing his way out of it with three consecutive big shots to break serve and tie the match before eventually breaking again in the 12th game en route to a 7-5, 6-3 win to put Pascack Hills one point away from victory.
That final point came at second doubles from Jigarjian and Rosenberg. Shaking off a slow start being down 5-4 and 6-5 and a set point in each game, the duo were able to get their serves in and each hit key shots from the baseline to win the first set in a tiebreaker before closing out the match and the league title with a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 victory over Jon Koenig and Josh Halperin.
“In the latter part of the first set, the wind was really becoming a factor and we had to calibrate our serves and our shots from the baseline depending on which side of the net you were on,” said Jigarjian. “We had to focus more on keeping the ball in first and putting the pressure on them second. With the match already at 2-1, it was on us to get a win and seal up the league title and I'm happy we came through.”
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Pascack Hills' Dmitri Chepkunov fought off a set point in the first to comeback for a straight sets win at second singles. |
Pascack Hills (6-2) swept the season series with Mahwah, winning 3-2 both times after losing to the T-Birds in the section final last year. With the Mahwah now in North 1, Group 3, there will not be any rematch in the section final but both will be in the hunt for section titles. Mahwah (8-3) got its other point at first doubles with a 6-4, 6-0 win from Eric Kim and Mike Taghjian.
With the Cowboys' league title streak still intact, they can now turn their attention to the upcoming Bergen County Tournament and the state tournament, which will be seeded late next week.
“I love the way Mahwah plays every point hard in every match, to beat a team like that with a lot on the line is a big accomplishment,” said Pascack Hills' head coach Eric Ganz. “These were some tough conditions to play in today. To survive those against a very good team and stick to our gameplan was great to see. We gutted out some matches and we found a way to win. We've had a tradition of winning league titles and I'm glad this group takes pride in carrying that tradition on.”
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