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06/03/2016 12:00 AMThe Branford boys’ tennis team turned in a historic performance on both the team and individual levels at last week’s Class M State Championship.
From an individual standpoint, Branford’s senior captain tandem of Miles Conlin and Dan O’Neill swept through the doubles bracket by winning every match in straight sets. Conlin and O’Neill’s run culminated in the championship clash, where they defeated Weston’s Eric Benninghoff and Ishan Mirchandani 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 to capture the Class M crown at Conard High School on June 2.
Meanwhile, fellow senior captain Matt Sachs made a dazzling run in the singles bracket as he, too, was a straight-sets victor in each match en route to the final, where Sachs took a 6-3, 6-1 defeat to Evan Powell of Guilford.
These performances, coupled with a handful of other victories, resulted in Head Coach Matt Fraenza’s squad earning second place as a team in Class M. That matches the program’s all-time best showing in states as Branford also finished second in 2010.
“Prior to the season, one of the big goals for us is to always reach the State Tournament and, this year, I saw a little more of a drive in them with their practice and preparation to not just make it and have players in the State Tournament, but to go far in the State Tournament and take it to a different level,” said Coach Fraenza, whose team went 10-7 for the regular season. “I saw a little more hunger in the team and I think we exceeded expectations and just continued to push the envelope and intensity in the practices leading up to the State Tournament and we really played exceptionally well through states. We came together as a team before that and had great team support throughout the tournament.”
Class M Champs
Conlin and O’Neill, who were Branford’s primary No. 1 doubles team during the season, earned a first round bye as the 9 seed in the state doubles tourney and defeated Avon’s Evan Purcell and Dean Ziroli 6-3, 6-1 when play started on May 28. Three days later, the Hornets’ duo defeated the 8th-seeded pair of Peter Connolly and Zach Yahne from Suffield 6-2, 6-3 in the third round, after which they scored a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Guilford’s Jason Inchalik and Sam Inchalik for the quarterfinals. Then in the semis on June 1, Conlin and O’Neill took down 12th-seeded Matthew Mastropietro and Matthew Spina from Wolcott to seal their spot in the final.
Conlin and O’Neill found themselves down 5-4 early in the title bout against Benninghoff and Mirchandani, but they rallied back to win the first set in a tiebreaker and then controlled the second stanza for the 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 victory.
“It was their willingness to not lose concentration and force the tiebreaker. They really figured things out late in the first set and waited out the other team. They were smart and kept waiting for them to make mistakes and capitalized on those opportunities,” Fraenza said. “That showed the leadership of senior captains. When they got down early, they didn’t lose their cool. They did a great job and took that momentum into the second set against a difficult Weston team in front of 100-150 fans. It was quite a scene.”
Conlin and O’Neill didn’t play every match together during the recent regular season, but they’ve played most of their matches together since their freshman years, and this was the third time they joined forces in states. O’Neill said that he and Conlin have good chemistry, along with specific strengths that help them complement each other well on the court.
“We both have good serves. Miles is more consistent than I am, but we both know that whenever our serves gets in, that we can finish most of our games quickly. The other team pops it up and one of us is always at the net. We both mostly stick to our strengths. I would say I’m better at the net than the baseline and Miles is more consistent at the baseline than the net. We just try to finish most points at the net because our volleys are better than our ground strokes,” said O’Neill. “I have to say it feels great. This has probably been my favorite accomplishment throughout high school. To be All-State and get to play with everyone on the team this year, this was by far my favorite year. We all played really well throughout the year.”
Conlin and O’Neill later competed at the State Open Championship at Amity and took a 6-0, 6-1 loss to Fairfield Warde’s Henry Johnson and Jack Johnson in the quarterfinal round. On the season, Conlin posted an overall record of 18-5, while O’Neill was 16-7.
Another Great Run
Sachs held the No. 3 seed in the Class M singles bracket. He first beat Berlin’s Adrian Wojtun 6-0, 6-0 and later upended Nathan McCracken of Ledyard by the same score in the second round. Sachs kept rolling in the third round by defeating Law’s Bobbie Phong 6-1, 6-2 and he followed that with a 6-0, 6-2 win versus 11th-seeded Steven Dampf of Weston in the quarterfinals. Sachs then posted a 6-3, 6-1 victory versus No. 2 seed Sebastian Casellas of Weston in the semis before dropping a 6-3, 6-1 decision to top-seeded Powell in the final. Sachs finished the year at 13-6 after losing to Amity’s Ethan Bershtein 6-2, 6-3 in the first round at the Open.
Sachs was Branford’s No. 1 singles player in the regular season, although he missed some time with a back injury. Coach Fraenza was pleased to see Sachs return to the court in time to make a memorable march to the state final.
“Matt had to almost revisit old strategies of when he didn’t have his A-game. You go back to his first match in states and he had to figure out his rallies and weapons as a player,” said Fraenza. “As the tournament went on, he got progressively stronger and recognized how to put players away. He was dictating play and taking control of his matches. He just played really smart and retooled and re-found his game.”
Coach Fraenza added that he was filled to brim with pride after seeing three of his seniors represent Branford boys’ tennis in both Class M championship matches.
“Having two teams as finalists in the last day, you just can’t be prouder as a coach when you see your team monopolize 50 percent of the spots in the finals,” Fraenza said. “The three of them will go down in history as guys who love tennis and are likeable athletes in school. It will be hard to see them go, but they’ve left a great legacy. What they’ve done is show a love of tennis to their teammates that will peak their interest and make them practice and train even harder, so we can get back there next year. It’s tough for a young adult to find things they love because they’re still figuring out the world, but these guys figured it out from day one as freshmen and it continued as seniors. They showed how much they love being out there and hitting tennis balls.”
The Best of the Rest
Branford also saw a few other athletes record victories that contributed to its second-place finish at the Class M meet. Freshman Praneeth Ganedi dispatched Berlin’s Jordan Chyra 6-1, 6-0 in the first round and then beat No. 9 seed Eric Wu of East Lyme 6-4, 6-0. Ganedi was eliminated by taking a 1-6, 6-1, 10-7 defeat to 8th-seeded Charles Gosnell from Weston in the quarterfinals. Ganedi, who mostly played 3 and 4 singles during the year, finished with a record of 15-5.
Senior Stas Balaji, who rotated between 2 and 3 singles, beat Berlin’s Thomas Fijalkowski 6-0 6-0 before losing to No. 10 seed Matt Burke of St. Joseph 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 in the second round. Balaji went 12-7 this year.
Will Benni played No. 2 doubles with fellow sophomore Charles Hall this year and they went 8-9. Benni was in the singles bracket for states and prevailed 8-0 over Junior Cherizier of New London-Wheeler in the opening round, after which he lost 6-1, 6-0 to 4th-seeded Matt Sydney of Weston in the first round.
Sophomore Brad Stutzman switched between 1 and 2 singles and netted a record of 12-5. In states, he teamed up with junior Aedan Spaar and they defeated Thomas Byron and Duv Pham from Enfield-Somers 6-0, 6-1 before losing to the 4th-seeded team of Jeff Eng and P.J. Malafronte of Guilford 6-3, 7-5 in the second round.
Spaar played alongside fellow junior Justin Veilleux at 3 doubles during the regular season and they were 9-8. Sparr and Veilleux were named the Hornets’ senior captains for next season. In states, Veilleux was paired with Charles Hall and they took a 6-2, 6-0 loss to Berlin’s Joseph Konowski and Evan McKinnon in the first round.
The rest of Branford’s roster this season featured sophomore Richard Loftis, along with freshmen Daniel Pagliaro, Paul Riccio, Kurt Schalper, and Max Thomas.