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06/11/2014 12:00 AMLast year at the Class M State Championship, Guilford boys' tennis fell just short of bringing home its first state title since 2010, but this season, the Indians earned the perfect redemption against their rival.
After finishing a two-point runner-up to Avon in the 2013 tournament, this time around Guilford beat out the three-time defending-champion Falcons 21-19 on the event's final day on June 4 at Yale to win the Class M state championship. With the Indians ahead by a single point going into the final round, the top-seeded doubles tandem of senior Luke Lemieux and junior Matt Murphy secured the gold for Guilford with its 6-0, 6-3 victory over Avon's Mike Arciero and Mike Thramann.
"It was perfect and honestly a great way to end my high school career; everyone contributed to this," said Lemieux, who was an All-State Team member with Murphy by virtue of reaching the semifinals. "Matt and I stayed confident and stuck to our strategy. We just clicked well together. This feels really good to win this title for the team. I've been waiting four years for this and after everything, it's nice to end on a high note."
Also competing for the Indians in the tournament were soloists in sophomore Evan Powell (All-State Team), freshman Connor Lemieux, junior Cameron Charbonneau, and freshman Jeff Eng, as Powell reached the semifinals (repeating his 2013 tournament destination), Eng the third round, and Lemieux and Charbonneau the second round. For doubles, junior Milo Roth and senior Wiley Small, plus junior Joe Boughton and senior Niall Kneerim (quarterfinalists) were also in the draw.
"When it came down to it, playing with Luke in states was a great experience, because he is such a well-rounded player, and we were able to use our skill and knowledge of the game to win the tournament," said Murphy. "Winning states was a major step forward for our program. After the last few years losing to Avon, this really made this one more special, especially because last year we only lost by a couple of points and that made our want to win even greater."
For Luke Lemieux and Murphy, they secured a first-round bye before breezing past Gerry Chica and Eli Engstrom of Sheehan (6-0, 6-0), and then earning another quick win against Avon's Austin Chen and Alex Herz (6-2, 6-0). In the quarterfinals, the two swept Benjamin Piche and Asa Scranton from Woodstock Academy (6-1, 6-2) prior to doing the same versus Micah Fox and Kevin Sisco of Ellington/Somers (6-0, 6-1) in the semis.
"There's a lot of work that goes into anything, and after the tournament ended last year, we worked on setting the team goals to get better this year," said Head Coach Andy Raucci. "A lot of planning went into it, and they had a different taste in their mouths to get back this year. We took small steps in the summer, fall, and winter, such as playing indoors, to get there."
Elsewhere in doubles, Kneerim and Boughton started with a 6-0, 6-0 triumph against Lyman Hall's Evan Quigley and Jose Venegas before beating Henry Li and Adam Piche of Woodstock Academy (7-5, 6-0), along with outlasting Bethel's Leo Eaton and Matthew San Giacomo (6-2, 4-6, 10-7). The pair then dropped 3-6, 3-6 sets the next round to 2nd-seeded Tyler Goldstein and Stephen Vulcano from Brookfield. Roth and Small lost their opener to Unni Kurumbai and Matthew Lin of East Lyme (1-6, 1-6).
"I went back-and-forth; my priority is to put the team in a position to win. Luke loves playing doubles, so I came to the conclusion that he and Matt had unique chemistry," said Coach Raucci. "I also had confidence in our singles guys that got wins in the early rounds to pick up points for us."
The top singles finisher for Guilford was Powell, who was the No. 5 seed entering the tournament. He began by defeating East Lyme's Ashish Joshi (6-0, 6-0), and then Sean Karasik of Bunnell by those same scores the second round. In the third round, he was a 6-1, 6-1 winner of Lewis Mills' Holden Robinson prior to coming out on top in the quarterfinals (7-6 (7-3), 6-2) facing No. 4 John Burdick of Avon. The resounding run ended, though, in the semis with a 1-6, 2-6 defeat against three-time defending-champion Bradley Orban of Foran.
"Evan got a huge win in the quarters against Avon's No. 1 singles player, so that was a two-point swing there, because it gave us a point and took one from them," said Raucci. "My job is to make sure our guys are prepared, and we were peaking at the right time this season. We played Avon to a 4-3 match [a win on May 23] this year, and it helped get us over the hump I think."
Eng was a first-round 7-5, 7-5 victor over Derek Lee from Tolland before advancing in the second round with 3-6, 6-0, 10-4 decisions against Dheven Duenwald of Joel Barlow. Yet Eng's outing was ended in the third on a 1-6, 2-6 loss to Bunnell's Blake Norton, the No. 3 seed.
Charbonneau came out on top in the first round via a 6-1, 7-5 triumph versus Adam Howard of Waterford, although he lost in the second (6-7 (3-7), 1-6) battling Carl Thurston from Sheehan. Finally, Connor Lemieux won his opener against Tyler Huhten of Woodstock Academy (6-2, 6-4), but he came up short the next round facing Orban (0-6, 0-6).
"It's a pretty tight regimen we run here with Sunday practices and working six days a week," said Coach Raucci. "But as a team, they have made the commitment to put in the hours. It's fun but also hard work; the practices are always to the point, and there's always a purpose to everything we do."