For the latest on our D-E Boys' Varsity Tennis team's results from this past weekend's NJ State Championships at Veteran's Park in Hamilton, NJ, Coach Joseph Iwanski provided the following nail-biter of a recap:

"On Saturday, Jordan Runyon took on Ted Apt of Bernards in the first round. While Apt was a decent player, he could not hang with Jordan's consistency and strength, and Jordan won easily, 6-1, 6-0. This was Jordan's first victory at this tournament (in only two tries), but a win down here is a big deal, so congrats to Jordan. That meant he advanced to the second round, where Haddonfield's top player, Max Oberholzer, a top-16 seed in the draw and fresh off of a Tournament of Champions straight sets win over Newark's Chris Paradis, and a first round BYE in this tournament, awaited.

"Meanwhile, (frosh) Nikhil Kokra was facing a top-30 seeded Peter Wylie of Cedar Grove, and Nikhil came out on fire! He was playing like he had nothing to lose, and quite frankly, Wylie was stunned by the quality of this unknown freshman second singles player. Nikhil quickly won the first set 6-1, and got an early lead in the second. Wylie, a lefty baseliner with vicious topspin, was beginning to get his strokes down, but it was getting late, as Nikhil broke him to take a 5-2 second set lead. The end seemed near. But then Nikhil let up a bit, eased off of the attack, and doubt crept into his game. Wylie, a senior with tons of experience, sensed a chink in the armor, and simply stopped missing, forcing Nikhil to BEAT him. At the same time, Nik's game dropped a bit, and he lost confidence in his strokes. Wylie stormed back and forced a tie-breaker, which he won. Nik's confidence gone, the super-tiebreak went to Wylie. All told, though, an important experience for our talented freshman, so console AND congratulate him. The opposing coaches were impressed with Nik's game and more than one came up to me to say what a future he has in tennis."

Iwanski continued:

"In the second round, Jordan Runyon began his match with Oberholzer on absolute fire as well. He was hammering the ball, going for big shots, hitting them, and keeping Oberholzer on his heels. In fact, Oberholzer was starting to fall apart, muttering to himself, missing easy shots, while Jordan was hittting winners, taking short balls and hammering them for winners. Jordan raced to a 5-2 first set lead. At this point, Oberholzer tightened things up a bit, stopped missing, and climbed back to 4-5, with Oberholzer serving. In that game, Jordan got to 15-40, with two breakpoint/set points. The first one was the pivotal point of the match as, after a considerable rally, Oberholzer hit a looping ball to Jordan's backhand that seemed like it was going out and Jordan, hoping for the ball to go out, did not play it and watched it drop IN. Big mistake. From that point on, Oberholzer did not miss. And he did not drop another game, taking the match 7-5, 6-0. Disheartening for Jordan, but also a quality experience for our hard-nosed #1. After the match Haddonfield's coach, who is THE winningest coach in NJ tennis (2000 wins), said that with only slightly more experience Jordan would be a seed.  High praise."