The tennis tide may be turning. For the second straight year and third time in the last four seasons, the Beacon boys’ tennis team captured the PSAL A league championship. And this time the Blue Devils did it against perennial powerhouse Benjamin Cardozo.
In what has become a hot rivalry the last few years, the top-ranked Blue Devils on Friday edged out the Judges, 3-2, at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center. Although the Judges took the first two singles games, a pair of well-played matches, Beacon prevailed in both doubles to win the title. The second-seeded Judges settled for runners-up for the eighth time in school history, but still boast an incredible 18 titles, the most of any New York program.
“Cardozo is an amazing opponent,” said Beacon coach Bayard Faithful. “They’re the New York Yankees of high school tennis. We were aware from the beginning of the season that there was good likelihood we would face them in the finals. We prepared to play a team of that caliber all season long.”
In a pivotal doubles match, freshman Christian Waldron and sophomore Jeremyah Schur held off freshman Hugh Mo and senior Petros Georgiou, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. In the second doubles, the duo of senior Khari Linton and junior Jacob Aronson easily swept the senior team of Kevin Lee and Christian Georges, 6-0, 6-0. It was the depth in the doubles which helped the Blue Devils overcome a pair of frustrating singles losses.
“The first doubles made the difference in this match,” Faithful said. “Christian and Jeremyah could have folded [after the second set], but they stepped up and performed well in the clutch. It was a huge win for the team.”
In a highly-anticipated first singles, Cardozo junior Jonathan Raude, who many consider to be the best player in New York State, faced off against sophomore Quinton Vega. Raude entered the finals having not lost a PSAL match in his career (32-0), but was tested by Vega, one of the nation’s best in his class, before prevailing 7-5, 0-6, 6-1. In the second singles, senior Wei Cheng Lin scored a second win for the Judges when he defeated Beacon’s senior captain Jonathan Franzel in another hard-fought battle, 6-4, 7-5.
Beacon senior Hannah Berner gave the team a needed win in the third singles when she upended rising junior Roland John, 6-4, 6-0. The Wisconsin-bound Berner, a nationally-ranked player, competes with the boys since Beacon doesn’t have a girls program. Berner still was among the best this season, going undefeated in the PSAL in nine matches.
Lady Judges Rule the Tennis Courts
Youth prevailed on Friday at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center, as the top-seeded Benjamin Cardozo Lady Judges won their fourth team championship in the last five years.
The Lady Judges, a group comprised mostly for freshman and sophomores, blanked No. 2 Stuyvesant 5-0, completing a perfect season in which they did not drop a single match. Sophomores Leighann Sahagun and Alexa Cohen and Freshman Arielle Griffin each won their singles matches in straight sets. Sahagun topped senior Veranika Li, 7-5, 6-1; Cohen defeated junior Aviva Hakanoglu, 6-1, 6-1; and Griffin bested junior Bessie Rentzler, 6-0, 6-2.
“We’re a team,” Cohen said. “We’re also close friends. It feels great to win [a championship] as a team, especially when you have someone to share it with.”
The doubles teams added convincing victories as well, proving Cardozo is not just young, but deep with talent, too. Freshman Kim Holmes and sophomore Dexuan Yuan won in first doubles, 6-0, 6-1; and sophomore Minxuan Yuan and junior Devangana Rashtrawar were victorious, 6-0, 6-4.
“Right from the beginning,” Cardozo coach Neal Baskin said, “I realized we had depth. The girls practiced and worked hard to get to this point. They deserve it.”
Game points … Cardozo (boys) defeated Beacon in the 2006 city finals … The Blue Devils beat the Judges in the semifinals the previous year … The Judges have made the playoffs every year since 1978 and made the finals 25 times in the last 27 years … Sahagun is ranked No. 2 in the 16-and-under section of the USTA’s Eastern standings.