LYNNFIELD — The Division 4 second-seeded Lynnfield High boys tennis team moved into the Final Four of the spring state tournament Monday afternoon with a 5-0 shutout over West Bridgewater.
Coach Joseph Dunn said he didn’t have much to go on when the Pioneers took to their home court for the match.
“We knew nothing about West Bridgewater,” he said. “Unfortunately, they do not play in our league so we did not have much of a plan. We watched very closely when they were warming up and right off the bat, I could tell that they were an extremely talented team and that we were going to have a battle. So, my mind was trying to find anything that my player could attack. If I find any weaknesses and if they need to adjust the game they adjust their game.”
Shea McCarthy, at second singles, one of the freshmen for Lynnfield, won both in straight sets, 6-4, and 6-4, against Chance Ryan.
“He (Ryan) was intimidating,” McCarthy said. “He looked very intimidating, and I knew he was tall so I had to move around him which is why I won today.”
“He (Ryan) has an epic serve,” Dunn said. McCarthy started pretty close to the fence to try and receive but slowly moved back in and he got them all back.
“I have to say he (McCarthy) plays so smartly with all his shots. He took charge at the net and he made sure that the six-foot-seven or eight-player came to the net as few times as possible. He definitely kept him at that and was such a smart match,” Dunn said.
Co-Captain Harrison Luba, at first singles, went into a tricky matchup with his West Bridgewater opponent. Luba came back to win the second set, sending the pair into a tie-breaker as the other matchups came to an end. Both sides were hyping their player up as the heat of the match ramped up. In the end, Luba came out victorious, taking not only his match, but making it a clean sweep.
The Pioneers, 17-1, are two matches away from the state title.
“Depending on who wins between Manchester-Essex and Cohasset. Cohasset we don’t know anything about. Manchester-Essex, we played once and we had a very close match. It was 3-2,” said Dunn. “ So, anything could happen when you have close matches. We are just going out there to play our game and whatever happens at that point happens, we’ll give it our all. That’s the team who’ll win.”
Other Lynnfield winners were Dan Levin, at second singles, and David Kasdon-Rafik Khodr at first doubles, and Russell Kasdon-Jason Yang.