Red Raider Tennis Men Take Care of Vineyarders in Season-Opener

OAK BLUFFS – As bitterly cold as the boat ride may have been to the Island, it did not take the Barnstable High tennis team long to warm up and get rolling on the courts Tuesday afternoon.

The Red Raiders (1-0) swept host Martha’s Vineyard, 5-0, in both teams’ season-opener and according to Barnstable head coach Mike Sarney local fans should expect more of the same this

The Barnstable High boys’ tennis team, defending Old Colony League Champions, made it a clean sweep of Martha’s Vineyard yesterday in the season-opener on the road, 5-0. The Red Raiders have all but one player from last year’s squad.
Photo courtesy of Mike Sarney

season. Loaded with young talent and a couple of new but gifted players, the defending Old Colony League champions graduated just one player from last year’s 20-1 campaign.

“We’re set up to go pretty far,” Coach Sarney said following Tuesday’s win. “As long as they’re able to keep their heads, the only team that’s probably going to beat us is us.”

Number one singles player Sonny Bisazza — a senior co-captain — got things rolling by beating the Vineyard’s Connor Dowling, 6-1, 6-2, followed by junior Tyler Shibles with a win in the number two singles slot. Shibles downed Zach Danz, 6-1, 6-3, and sophomore Max Francis readily handled Max Hammond with a 6-0, 6-2 match victory.

Barnstable’s number one doubles team of Daniel Dettinger-Klemm, a senior transfer student from Germany, combined his much-welcomed skills with junior Cooper Hesse as the duo defeated Donovan Belisle and James Kelliher, 6-1, 6-1.

Senior co-captain Donnie Brodd teamed up with junior Cooper Blaze to take the number two doubles match from Graham Lewis and Charlie Parkhurst, 6-1, 6-2.

“We really haven’t had a real practice outside yet,” Coach Sarney said. “So I kind of had to make an immediate decision about who was playing where today, but I’ll probably be trying a bunch of different combinations to see what works best.”

The Red Raiders return to the courts at home Thursday with both boys’ and girls’ teams facing Sandwich.

— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm