Warriors Capture 3rd Straight Eastern Mass. Title

BROOKLINE, MA — Rulers of Eastern Massachusetts Division 1 tennis perfectly describes the Brookline High boys tennis team.

Second-seeded Brookline and Division 1 South Sectional champion, defeated third-seeded Lexington High, the Division 1 North Sectional champion, 4-1 at its home court, Waldstein Park, Sunday, June 27.

With the win, the Warriors raised their record to 19-0 and won their 59th straight match. Moreover, Brookline will aim for its third straight Division 1 title Tuesday, June 29 at Division 1 Central Division champion Westboro High (15-0), the top seed of its region. Lexington ended its season at 15-1.

“My team has been solid all year long and have been solid when they won states in 2018 and 2019,” Warriors coach Mike Mowatt said.

This is Brookline’s third straight Eastern Mass. title over the Minutemen. The two previous matches with Lexington were both 3-2 scores at Newton North High, but this year, the higher seed hosted the tournament in the state semifinals and will host in the penultimate match too.

Although the Warriors are favored to three-peat as state champs because they were seeded second while Westboro was the top seed in the Central Division. Franklin High was 14-0 in the regular season, 14-1 overall after losing 3-2 to eighth-seeded Needham High in the Division 1 South Sectional Quarterfinals, but was seeded ahead of Brookline in the tournament because it won a coin flip. The Rangers were the only undefeated team in six-team Central Division tournament, thus it didn’t have to win a coin flip.

The Warriors have been led by their three singles players all year and the tilt with the Minutemen wasn’t any different. All three Brookline players won their matches in straight sets.

“They play in many tournaments [outside of high school] and they play well defensively,” Mowatt said. “They are able to get most of their balls back, which sets us up well. “I’m impressed with their leadership. They set the tone for everyone else and it’s contagious.”

Junior Jayanth Devaiah, who normally plays long matches at first singles, was very efficient for the Warriors and was the first one off the court in bageling sophomore Joel McCandless, 6-0, 6-0.

“I came in with the attack mindset, and I wanted to impose my will and lead the team,” Devaiah said.

Devaiah’s serve was working efficiently and his steady game forced McCandless into many hitting errors. He was also deft in attacking the net and setting up his overhead forehead slams for winners and perfect placement on his drop shots and passing shots to the gaps for winners.

“I played against his older brother and I saw him play as well,” Devaiah said. “I knew what to expect coming in, and I was able to execute.”

Warriors senior captain southpaw Noah Schwartz served well and hit his share of winners from the baseline. Schwartz was also stellar in setting himself up to go to net and smacked many winners with his backhand in a 6-0, 6-3 victory over sophomore Ariigham Bagga at third singles.

“Today, I played a less aggressive game,” Schwartz said. “I was more consistent and rallied with my opponent. When the opportunity presented itself, I came to net, but mostly, I stayed at the baseline.”

The lefty Schwartz clinched the match when he sliced a drop shot for a winner.

Senior captain Sam Feldman clinched it for Brookline with a 6-3, 6-2 verdict over junior Sam Charney at second singles. Feldman’s serve was on target and he set himself up with his strong baseline work, which led to many overhead forehand slams for winners at the net.

“I was able to be the clincher because my match was long and Jay and Noah beat their opponents faster than I won my match,” Feldman said. “My match was kind of a grind. He [Charney] had a big serve and I tried to block out the noise.”

Feldman was also artistic in his placement of the ball. He wrapped things up at 7 p.m. when he tapped a shallow return in the gap for a winner far away from Charney.

“It’s just a matter of feeling lucky,” Feldman said. “Practice and muscle memory helps. I’ve been working on it for so long and it has become second nature for me.”

Going into the match, the Minutemen were expected to do well in doubles. However, both Warrior tandems played well. At first doubles, Brookline senior captain Vardaan Kharbanda and freshman Dhevin Nahata played one of their best matches of the year and battled hard in a win over senior captain Ed Lacson and sophomore Aahan Mehra.

Both duos were evenly matched with Kharbanda serving and volleying well and Nahata blasting a few winners down the gaps. Lacson and Mehra won the first set, 7-6, 7-5 in the tiebreaker in which the Warrior tandem battled back from a 5-0 deficit in the tiebreaker to get within one, 6-5. In the second set, Kharbanda and Nahata led most of the way before Lacson and Mehra tied it up, 5-5, but the matched ended with the Minutemen defaulting because Lacson suffered a few cramps and had to retire.

“Dhevin and I had a great time out there today and we’ve been friends for a while,” Kharbanda said. “Our opponents played well and I did not want to win this way. I hate to see their senior to finish his [high school] career that way.”

At second doubles, Lexington got its only point with juniors Kevin Polachal and Archit Kumar beating junior Anders St. Clair and freshman Aarush Admala, 6-2, 6-2. St. Clair and Admala played well, but Polachal and Kumar were better.

“It’s really nice to win states my first two years and have a chance to win it again,” Schwartz said. “It’s too bad we were not able to play last year because of the pandemic. I hope we can go in confident like we did today.”

Although the Rangers have Brandeis-bound Aryn Nehtu at first singles, the Warriors are the prohibitive favorite to win. In fact, the match with Lexington was for the de facto state title because Westboro doesn’t have as much talent as either squad in Eastern Massachusetts.

“They have a good player at first singles, and I don’t know what they have after that,” Schwartz said. “I hope we can strengthen our doubles team, but it shouldn’t be an issue.”

Nehtu is a solid player who will play for Division III Brandeis University, but Feldman will play for Division I Brown University and Division I schools are recruiting Devaiah.

“I’m confident we’ll go out and try our hardest,” Kharbanda said. “We have good chemistry. Westboro is a very good team, and I’m looking forward to the match.”

This is Mowatt’s first year at the helm for Brookline and credits his predecessor, former coach Nick Pero (who was the 2018 Boston Globe Coach of the Year) for building the foundation.

“I used to coach in the Hockomock League and it shows what good coaching would do for them,” Mowatt said. “They still love him. We work hard in practice to get them motivated with a lot of drills.”

Article By Eliot Schickler