HINGHAM – For the oldest high school boys’ tennis team on Cape Cod, it has happened before just once.
For the second time since the Barnstable High School boys’ tennis program was founded in 1931, yesterday it was crowned the MIAA Division 1 South Sectional champion with a 3-2 win over top-seeded Brookline.
The Barnstable High School boys’ tennis team defeated Brookline yesterday for the Division 1 South Sectional Championship crown.
Photo courtesy of Betsy Brodd
The last time the Red Raiders captured a Division 1 South Sectional title was in 1999 under former Barnstable High Athletic Hall of Famer Dick Norman, but year in and year out ever since Barnstable has fallen in the sectionals to Brookline, BC High or Wellesley, to name a few.
The victory now puts Barnstable in the hunt for a Massachusetts state championship title – something that it has been fighting for all season. The Red Raiders are now 20-1 on the campaign and the win marks just the fourth time the Red Raiders have reached the 20-win milestone.
Barnstable will now face the Division 1 North Sectional champion Colonials of Acton-Boxborough Regional High School (19-0) on Monday, June 15, in the MIAA Division 1 State Semifinals set to be held at Newton South High School at 3:30 pm. The winner of that advances to the state championship.
Much of yesterday’s victory was due to an incredible, clutch performance by sophomore Max Francis, Barnstable head coach Mike Sarney said, as Francis exerted an uncanny degree of willpower over his opponent Theo Tamayo with the match tied at 2-2.
“Max clinched it,” Coach Sarney said. “It actually worked out perefectly. Cooper (Hesse) and Daniel (Dettinger-Klemm) won (2nd doubles), then Ty (Shibles) won like two minutes later and Max was up 5-4 and finished it off, all within about 10 minutes.”
Junior Tyler Shibles, this year’s Division 1 South Sectional individual champion, defeated Brookline’s Alex Chin, 6-3, 6-2, just after the number two Barnstable doubles team of Cooper Hesse and Daniel Detinger-Klemm staged a decisive, 6-2, 6-2 win over Brookline’s Zander Comache and Jesse Lamba.
Barnstable High sophomore Max Francis came through when his team needed him most in yesterday’s huge win over Brookline in the sectional title match versus Brookline.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports Photos
Those two wins set up Francis to either come through in the clutch or watch the Red Raiders fall in the sectionals again for the 14th time in the past 16seasons.
Francis did his Red Raiders proud and defeated Tamayo, 6-1, then 6-4.
“It should be interesting,” Coach Sarney said of Monday’s Division 1 State quarterfinals match versus the undefeated Colonials.
Barnstable’s number one singles player, senior co-captain Sonny Bisazza, was engaged in the battle of the season against Brookline’s top dog Eliot Rozovsky and Rozovsky downed Bisazza in the first set, 6-4. BIsazza came back in the second set for a match-tying win, 6-3, but then Rozovsky prevailed in the tiebreaker set, 10-7.
The Red Raiders’ first doubles team of Donnie Brodd and Cooper Blaze faced an equally formidable opponent in Josh Caplan and Drew McCarthy with similar results.
Caplan and McCarthy defeated Brodd and Blaze in the first set, 6-1, then the Red Raider duo came back to win the second set, 6-3 before falling in the tiebreaker set, 6-3.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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