BOYS TENNIS: Cedar Crest, Palmyra bow out in district openers
HERSHEY >> Team tennis is a different cat. Studs at the top of the lineup card only get you two-thirds of the way there.
With Colin Muraika and Nick Tull manning the first and second singles spots, Cedar Crest needed a win elsewhere to advance out of the first round of the District 3 Class AAA team tennis playoffs. The Falcons fell just short.
Marko Resetar lost in three sets to Central York's Connor Bacha at No.3 singles, the deciding match, as the No. 12 seed Panthers upended fifth-seeded Cedar Crest 3-2 Thursday at Hershey Racquet Club. Central York advances to play four-seed Hershey on Tuesday.
County brethren Palmyra also exited the stage Thursday with a 3-1 loss to Berks League entrant Exeter.
Bacha's 6-7(6), 6-0, 6-2 comeback victory was a clinic in momentum. Once the Central York junior re-tuned for the second set he never gave it back, winning 12 of the final 14 games.
"We know we're very strong at one and two (singles) with Colin and Nick and have good shots there," Crest coach Mike Rohrbach said. "We practiced well for the week leading up and the guys had been working hard. It was quite an accomplishment for this team just to get there, and they played really well. We gave them a good fight in all three matches but just couldn't get over the hump."
Trailing 2-4 in the third and deciding set, Resetar engaged in a long deuce game with Bacha and had game point on a few occasions. But Bacha fought it off to win the game for a 5-2 lead and greased the skids for a close-out on serve.
"(Bacha) found an extra gear and you have to credit him for an elevated game," Rohrbach said. "I think Marko was a little shocked by the second set, but he came back and fought really hard in the third. We were a point or two away from getting back in it.
"It was a big swing game. If Marko gets that game, then it's 3-4 and you don't know what going to happen. You don't know how the other player is going to react."
Muraika defeated Chris Maderitz 6-0, 6-2 at top singles and Tull gassed Central's Jeremy Garling 6-0, 6-1.
But Cedar Crest ran into issues at both doubles matches. The Falcons' No. 1 duo of Liam Easter and Lucas Kerbis fell to Austin Pokepec and Corey Caskey 6-0, 6-4, while a win at No. 2 by Central's Kyle Varone and Mike Visco 6-4, 6-0 over Connor Verhaggen and Austin Moore squared the match at 2.
That shifted focus to third singles for the marbles.
Seventh-seeded Palmyra, meanwhile, was victorious on the second doubles court, but dropped 36 of 39 games at the three singles slots to go out 3-1 at the hands of the No. 10 Exeter Eagles.
Palmyra's regular season success in the Mid-Penn Conference did not translate Thursday at the hands of a strong Berks League opponent. Adam Lerro and Quinn Marcus provided Palmyra's only team point of the session, a 6-2, 6-0 win over Owen Halsey and Ethan Reed at No.2 doubles. The No. 1 match, in which Exeter also led, did not finish.
The Eagles' dominance on the singles court was impressive. Exeter's Jonah Buczewski aced Eric Lynn 6-0, 6-0 at top singles; Todd Weiner defeated Ben Rusling 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2; Eric Kohl fell to Diego Olazagasti 6-1, 6-1 at third singles.
"I knew Exeter had a really strong one and two," Palmyra coach Abbie Mahaffey said. "Our strengths have been at three singles and doubles, where we've been pretty successful. You never know what you're gonna get when they come out, but I thought our doubles played well.
"For them just to get here, I was really happy with that."