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| Wolcott’s Tyler Sgrott serves the ball to Holy Cross’ Andrew Russo during their No. 6 singles match on Thursday at Holy Cross. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69) |
The Wolcott and Holy Cross boys tennis teams will be very familiar with each other by the end of the day Saturday.
Because of all the rescheduling that has occurred this spring, the Eagles and Crusaders will have played each other in back-to-back matches. The first of those two showdowns occurred on Thursday at Wolcott High School, and it went in favor of Wolcott by a score of 6-3. The Eagles remained undefeated at 11-0 while the Crusaders dropped to 5-2.
This was supposed to be the season where someone would dethrone Wolcott. That could still happen, but the Eagles — who lost four out of five top players from last year — haven’t lost yet.
Seniors Alex Hale and Raheel Chowdhury have led the way for Wolcott. The same held true on Thursday, with each claiming 8-3 wins against Holy Cross. Hale defeated Dan Huang 8-3 and Chowdhury knocked off Zekai Zhang 8-3.
At No. 5 singles, Wolcott’s Kevin Quinn won 8-6 in a tightly contested match against Dan Chen. No. 6 singles went to Tyler Sgrott, 8-2 over Andrew Russo.
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| Wolcott’s Kevin Quinn hits a backhand to Holy Cross’ Dan Chen during their No. 5 singles match on Thursday. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69) |
In No. 2 doubles, Chowdhury and Quinn defeated Zhang and Rich Denardo 8-2. At No. 3 doubles, Tyler Shoban and Sgrott won 8-2 over Chen and Peter Zhu.
Wolcott’s lineup on Thursday included two juniors and a sophomore. The juniors are Shoban and Quinn, and the sophomore is Alex Fishbein.
Wolcott’s closest match so far this season was 5-4 against Torrington at home on April 20. The Eagles and Red Raiders split their singles matches, so the contest came down to doubles. Hale and Fishbein won No. 1 doubles 8-2, Chowdhury and Quinn took No. 2 by a margin of 8-3. Wolcott improved to 8-0 at the time with the victory over Torrington.
The Eagles face Holy Cross on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Holy Cross. A rematch with Torrington awaits on May 4 in Torrington, followed by the home finale on May 7 against Naugatuck. There are also matches against Watertown (April 30) and Wilby (May 1).
GALLERY: Click here to see photos from Thursday’s match.
