By Bill Alden

Lex Decker savored things as he competed in the Mercer County Tournament last week in his final season with the Princeton Day School boys’ tennis team.

“It has been quite a career, quite a four years for me,” said Decker. “I love coming here to the these courts.”

Decker did well again at the Mercer County Park tennis complex, posting straight-set wins in the preliminary round matches at first singles on April 23 to advance to the semis on Thursday.

Things didn’t go in the final rounds as Decker lost to Noah Lilienthal of Princeton High in the semis and then battled hard in the the third place match before falling in straight sets to Nolan Shah of WW/P-North.

“Unfortunately it didn’t work our for me today, but I was happy with the way I played, especially in the second match,” said Decker, whose fourth place finish in his flight helped PDS take sixth in the team standings at the event which was won by WW/P-South.

“I don’t think I was there 100 percent mentally in the first set. Nolan wasn’t playing as aggressive in the first set, he was playing more defensive, hitting more slices. In the second set, he started to pick up his game and I upped my game as well.”

Decker kept playing hard to the end in the second set, coming up with a service break to momentarily stave off defeat.

“Tennis is an up and down game, it is 5-2 and he made a couple of errors and that gave me a little motivation to push forward,” recalled Decker. “I got that double fault to get to 3-5. He just played a solid game at the end. He is a really nice kid; it was joy to play him.”

PDS head coach Will Asch credited Decker with doing a nice job on several levels.

“Lex is a great fighter, a consistent player, and a good competitor; he has a lot of tools,” said Asch.

“He never stops fighting. He was behind and he came back and won a couple of games. It looked like he was going to turn it around and then Nolan started to raise the level of his game. Both of them were playing better than they had in the first set, and then Nolan found another gear to win the match.”

Senior Vivek Sharma came through to win the consolation draw at second singles.

“It was a good win. It was revenge too because he had lost to this young man from Hun (Mehmet Koksal) before,” said Asch. “It was a tough match and that makes him mentally stronger.”

The PDS first doubles pair of freshman Aaron Chu and senior Riley Gudgel showed how good they can be in winning the consolation draw in their flight.

“Doubles was really great because we have a freshman Aaron Chu there, and each match he is getting better,” said Asch. “Riley knows how to play, but the other boy is just learning how to play doubles. He hits a beautiful ball, but there is a lot more to it and you can’t just hit ground strokes. You have to hit your overheads, play at the net, and you have to run like the older kids.”

With the state Prep B tournament taking place later this month, Asch believes that success in the MCT should help steel his players for that competition.

“They play in a tournament like this and they win some matches and they feel more confident,” said Asch. “It gets them experience winning under pressure, it is good. I think we have a good chance. It is going to be a battle for sure.”

In Decker’s view, the Panthers will be ready to battle as they try to regain the Prep B crown after finishing second last spring to break a streak of four straight titles.

“Our team has a lot of good fighters; our two freshmen, Aaron Chu and Aaron Phogat are fighters,” said Decker, who is planning to do a post-graduate year  to sharpen his game before playing college tennis. “I think these guys getting the opportunity to be in pressure situations here is critical for them going into Prep B.”