Raiders Return To Tennis Semis
Boys team follows girls footsteps; both teams host Barnstable today
Monkey see, monkey do.
After watching its top-seeded girls' tennis team beat Framingham on Monday to advance to a semifinal matchup with Barnstable, the top-seeded, undefeated and defending champion Wellesley boys' team joined the party on Tuesday, sweeping Attleboro 5-0 in a MIAA Team Tennis South Division 1 quarterfinal match to set up a semifinal showdown with Barnstable for both the boys and girls teams.
Both semifinal matches will be held at 3:30 p.m. today at the Raiders home courts at Hunnewell Field.
After struggling early in the first set, Wellesley's Ilya Levin, sporting a new buzz cut and Michael Jordan headband, settled down after first set jitters to beat Kleber Fukamizu 6-4, 6-1 in straight sets the top singles match.
"He's pretty good," said Levin following his first set win. "He's really pushing me."
Levin wasn't the only Raider who had visited the barber recently as many members are now sporting tournament Mohawks as they attempt to defend their South team title.
The first singles match was the only match Attleboro managed to score more than two points as Wellesley breezed to its 22nd straight win this season winning all five matches in straight sets for the second straight day in postseason play.
The Raiders swept Silver Lake 5-0, losing nary a point, in a first round home win on Monday.
Wellesley's Chris Cua beat Attleboro's Tim Flynn 6-1,6-0 at second singles and Neil Bhatt beat Evan Heller 6-0, 6-1 at third-singles to give Wellesley the sweep of singles matches.
Gordon Peters and Alex Robertson, who will play a State semifinal doubles individual tournament match next weekend at Clark University, beat Hani Yusuf and Dan Christensen 6-2, 6-0 at top doubles and David Mykrantz and Jeff Baldwin beat Joe Narkiewicz and Matt Forrest 6-1, 6-0 at 2nd doubles to wrap up the win.