Sports
Rams Tennis Falls to Greenwich, Lands in No. 3 Spot
Ben Lee wins the only match for New Canaan as the Cardinal's freshman-led team dominates.
The winner of the Greenwich-New Canaan boys tennis match Friday would more than likely decide which team would be the higher seed in the upcoming FCIAC tournament. The winner would be No. 2, the loser No. 3. Barring any major upsets in the remaining few regular season games, Greenwich appears to have locked up the second spot, and New Canaan the third.
The Cardinals beat the Rams on the NCHS courts on Friday afternoon, 6-1. The only match the Carndinals didn't win was No. 1 singles in which Ben Lee, with arguably his most complete match of the season, beat Tyler Kratky 6-1, 6-3. Lee had to play "top-of-his-game" tennis to beat Kratky, a solid all-court player.
Greenwich, with an all-freshman lineup in singles from numbers two-five, won all four matches.
Juan Sheppard beat Chase Urban 7-5, 6-0.
"At 5-all in the first set, he lifted his game while I didn't," Urban said. "In the second set I ran out of gas early and had no energy."
That seemed to be the story in most matches with the Rams either winning or at least being competitive in the first set and then falling off in the energy department.
At No. 3 singles, Zach Niklaus beat Kevin Budrawich, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. At No. 4 singles, another Greenwich freshman, Blake Niehaus, took out Nick Laub, 6-3, 6-3. In the marathon match of the day at No. 5 singles, Tatsuya Iasari outlasted Will Burger 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
The same pattern continued in the two doubles matches—close but no cigar for the Rams.
At No. 1, Michael Chien and C.J. Ruse were a three-set winner over Peter Huff and Patrick Newton, 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-4.
In No. 2 doubles, Dan Madoff and Michael Grund were winners over Steve Evans and Connor Hedley, 6-4, 6-3. The winners came back from 0-3 in the second set by winning the next six games.
Greenwich lost nine seniors from last year's team, but with four freshman winning singles matches appears to be a top echelon team for at least the next three years.
Both New Canaan and Greenwich had already clinched playoff spots.
The Rams conclude the regular season with matches on three consecutive days: Monday, May 17, at Norwalk, then home against Fairfield Warde on May 18, and home on May 19 against Weston.
