(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption: SILVER MEDALIST: Princeton High first doubles player Ari Silver prepares to hit a backhand last Wednesday in the Mercer County Tournament. Silver and partner Ben Weingarten finished second in their flight, falling to Piray Sekar and Junjior Mori of WW/P-S 6-1, 6-3 in the championship match.

PHS Boys' Tennis Takes 3rd At MCT but Still Hasn't Reached its Potential

Bill Alden

Playing at second doubles, the Princeton High duo of Andrew Berman and Aaron Maltby got off to a good start last Wednesday in the final day of competition at the 2007 Mercer County Tournament.

The pair won the first set of their semifinals match 6-2 against Scott Weinreb and Brandon Frank of WW/P-N and seemed on course to advance to the finals.

But Bergman and Maltby lost the next two sets to end up in the third place match instead. Although the pair recovered to win that match, the result symbolized a day of missed opportunities for the Little Tigers.

In first doubles, the PHS pair of Ben Weingarten and Ari Silver won their semifinal match in straight sets but then fell 6-1, 6-3 to Piray Sekar and Junjior Mori of WW/P-S in the championship match.

David Zheng lost in the semifinals at third singles but rebounded to post a 6-0, 6-1 win over Blake McArthur of Hopewell Valley in the third-place match. Kevin Cen lost in the semis and the third place match in second singles.

The Little Tigers ended the day in third place in the team standings with 22 points, trailing champion WW/P-S (33 points) and Princeton Day School (26 points.)

PHS head coach Sarah Heyman rued her team's failure to cash in on its chances. "While finishing third out of 16 teams is not bad, it is a little disappointing when there was potential to pick up more points," said Heyman. "There were a lot of strong competitors in the field this year; it is a tough tournament."

It was tough for Heyman to see her second doubles team of Bergman and Maltby falter in the semifinals. "They started out well in the semifinal match," said Heyman. "The North team picked it up and their games dropped a little bit. They tried to work through it but it didn't happen today."

While things didn't happen for Zheng in his semifinal match, he did end the day with some superb tennis in taking third. "I think he put a lot of pressure on himself in the first match," recalled Heyman.

"He knew the team placing depended on that match and he just put too much pressure on himself. He really dominated in the third place match winning 6-0, 6-1; he played a good match against Blake."

The highlight of the day for PHS was provided by the first doubles team of Weingarten and Silver. "They played a great semifinal match," said Heyman, referring to the pair's 6-2, 6-1 win over Josue Rivera and Matt Biedron of Pennington. "They just fell a little bit short in the final. It would've been nice to have a couple more players make the final."

Heyman acknowledged that her team has had trouble finding a rhythm in the face of this spring's uncooperative weather. "We've had a tough beginning of the season because we've had a lot of matches cancelled," said Heyman, whose team went 3-2 in its first five dual matches. "We've played a couple of good teams, we had a really close loss to PDS and we lost to South."

In Heyman's view, the ups and downs of the MCT should be a valuable learning experience for her players. "I hope they all take something from today, both winning and losing," said Heyman, whose team hosts Peddie on May 3.

"The singles players are settling into their spots. Forming doubles teams is always tough, some days the guys play great together and other days they are shaky. I definitely think we have the potential to have great doubles teams."

And Heyman is confident that her team has the potential to live up to its tradition of excelling in the state tournament. "The states are coming up and we'll have other matches made up," said Heyman. "It will be a lot of matches; probably four days a week. Hopefully they will use it to get stronger."

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