Boys Tennis
Sweet Home can't solve East

The Sweet Home boys tennis is having a great year so far but there's one stumbling block they haven't been able to hurdle.

Last week, Sweet Home (5-1, 1-1) defeated Orchard Park, 5-2, who beat the Panthers, 4-1, in the gold bracket finals of last year's ECIC Team Championships, Williamsville South, 5-0, and Lancaster, 4-1. But Sweet Home couldn't upend Williamsville East, losing 3-2, at home on Friday, April 20.

Ian Carr and Sabooh Khan defeated Matt Kweller and Mike Metzger at first and third singles, respectively, to earn points for the Panthers.

East sophomore Jerome Luo beat Ryan Barton at second singles, 6-3, 6-3.

"That was a very competitive match and Jerome kept Ryan off balance from the baseline using a variety of shots to win that match," said East coach Randy Ball.

The Flames also took wins at first and second doubles. Junior Joe Buran and senior Taylor Deer beat Ian Collis and Matt Bordonaro at first doubles, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. The second doubles match between East's Marc Chaskes and Andrew Legarreta and Sweet Home's Dan Kaminski and Matt Somer went over 2½ hours. Kaminski and Chaskes won the first set, 7-6, in a tiebreaker. Chaskes and Legarreta fought their way through the second set to win, 7-5, and came from a 4-2 deficit in the third set to win 6-4.

"The team played with a ton of heart and did a great job against a very good team," said Ball. "I couldn't have been more proud of this group. Once again, I would think that Sweet Home will be our toughest competition in the league and our next match should prove to be another hard fought battle."

"We lost both doubles matches which was really disappointing," said Sweet Home coach Brian Koziol. "We are deep and doubles are our strength so in order to beat good teams, our doubles have to win. It's a little wake up call for us but I know my guys will be ready for East when we play them next time."

The rematch is May 7 at East.

Sweet Home's match with Orchard Park on Tuesday, April 17 was exciting. Three matches went three sets (Barton, second singles; Collis, Bordonaro; first doubles; and Furqan Hassan, Zach Crittenden at third doubles) and the Panthers won all of them.

Tarun Kakumanu won in two sets at fourth singles and Kaminski and Sommer won in two at second doubles.

"I am very happy with the win over OP," said Koziol. "They are the class of tennis in Western New York so anytime we can compete and defeat a program like that it makes me very proud of what my guys have accomplished."

Prior to the East match, Barton and Collis/Bordonaro were each 3-0.

Sweet Home (5-1, 1-1) plays Iroquois, Lake Shore and West Seneca East this week.

East plays at Lake Shore and Williamsville South.