This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

KP Boys Tennis Team Grabs 3-2 win over Franklin

Tom Yang picks up deciding points with an 0-6, 6-2, 6-4 win at third singles.

Unlike their female counterparts opening contest a day earlier, the King Philip boys tennis team hosted neighboring Franklin under the bright sky on a pleasant afternoon and no wind whatsoever.

Unfortunately, the Warrior racketeers had to do a little sweating under the warm sun before they captured the win, 3-2.

With everyone else nearly done, KP’s Tom Yang and Franklin’s Alec Marshall battled in a three-set match with the winner taking all. Marshall had jumped all over Yang, taking the first set 6-0 in the third singles contest, but the KP athlete bounced back with a 6-2 in the second set to force the final set. Yang would eventually prevail with a 6-4 win.

Find out what's happening in Wrenthamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

KP Coach Laurie Puddester did not let on that this was the deciding point on the afternoon.

“I didn’t say a word to Tom,” the coach said. “It’s the first meeting of the season; you don’t want to put all that pressure on an athlete this early.”

Find out what's happening in Wrenthamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Although Yang wasn't sure, he had a suspicion that his match was an important one.

“During my match, I was looking at the other scores to see how everyone else was doing. I really didn’t know what the doubles teams had done, but I had a feeling that I needed to win,”  Yang said. “If I had been told, it wouldn’t have bothered me either way. I didn’t need the added stress, but I would have stayed focused and just played my game.”

Prior to Yang’s heroics, Mike McCarthy fell to Wes Esthimer 6-0, 6-1 in first singles and the tandem of Christian Gonsar and Cam Lyons lost to Franklin’s Kevin Yang and Brian Barker in first doubles 6-3, 6-4.

Things were not looking promising for the Warriors.

On the bright side, senior co-captain Tom Eaton had no issues with taking out Jon Hardesty 6-3, 6-1 in second singles, and Jon Marinelli and Ian Pimental defeated Adam Chalk and Corey Rafter 6-2,6-3 to even things up at two.

Although her top singles and top doubles teams lost, Puddester was not overly concerned with their play.

“For Mike it was just nerves, he knew his opponent too well,” the coach said. “As for the doubles teams, I just put them together yesterday. I like what I saw from Christian and Cam today.”

A win is a win, but if the Warriors continue to put them out as they did in this fashion, Coach Puddester may age rather quickly this season.

“I knew that today was going to be a tough match. It’s always 3-2, 2-3 when we play Franklin,” she said. “Giving me gray hairs - it’s a little too early in the season to be doing this to me.”

KP will host Mansfield, another Hockomock League foe, on Monday afternoon at 3:30.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Wrentham