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06/04/2014 12:00 AMAll year long, Hand and Amity boys' tennis were on a collision course to meet for the SCC Division I title and, when the dust settled, it was the Tigers coming out on top once again in a thrilling prize fight.
The Tigers topped the Spartans by a 4-3 margin on May 30 at Yale to win their second straight SCC Division I championship. With the score tied at 3 after six matches were in the books, senior No. 3 singles player David Schulz clinched the Tigers' title by virtue of his lengthy two-set victory.
"I hadn't asked anyone the scores, so I wasn't 100 percent sure that it had come down to me, but I felt that it did," said Schulz, who was also named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. "I wasn't getting ahead of myself and thinking that it all came down to me. I knew that if it came down to a long match that I could pull through, because I've beaten him before in three sets."
Schulz prevailed over Amity's Ethan Bershtein, as Schulz took the first set 7-6 after a 10-8 tiebreak. The equally long second set additionally saw Schulz come out on top 6-3 to send him to a third consecutive perfect season and the Tigers to their second trip to the top of the league.
"It's been a great season for us; we split with Amity in the regular season, but today was awesome," said senior No. 2 soloist and co-captain Alex Rieger. "It was great, because we won the matches we've been winning all year, and it was just really good to do."
Rieger was the other singles victor for Hand (17-2) against Phillip Hochman. Rieger got ahead early with a 6-3 first-set decision before sweeping his adversary away on a 6-0 win in the second. In additional solo action, No. 1 competitor and senior Scott Rubinstein lost 6-0, 6-3 sets to Jason Seidman; plus No. 4 senior Austin Paresi lost 1-6, 3-6 in his matchup versus Maxwell Einbinder.
"I don't know what to say; I'm speechless. We knew going in that Amity was as good as us, and the top two teams play off," said Head Coach Dawn Fagerquist. "I wanted nothing more than the seniors to play the best they could today, and they all worked extremely hard. For David to come through, clinch it, and be the Most Outstanding Player was great."
Moving to doubles, the No. 3 tandem of senior co-captain Louie Rogers and junior Collen Nelson scored a marathon, three-set triumph against Marco Canepa and Jared Pepper. Rogers and Nelson drew first blood on a 6-3 first set win before Amity (16-2) came back with a 6-1 second set victory, although Hand's duo closed it out on a third-set 6-1 score.
The final Hand doubles decision came by way of the No. 2 pairing of sophomores Dan Weinreb and Andrew Pace-coming out the winners 6-0, 6-2 in straight sets over Jacob Noyes and Noah Gallant. Finally at No. 1 doubles, junior Andrew Goldfeder and freshman Kyle Fay fell 4-6, 2-6 facing Gabriel Betancur and Nicolas Sabatelli.
"I'm just proud for everyone on the team, and it's just overwhelming to know you can win it two years in a row," said Fagerquist. "They work hard; they work hard with no fooling around. It's a really great group of boys to work with."