HARRISBURG – The State College Area High School boys tennis team ran its record to 12-1 this spring with wins over Gettysburg, Cedar Cliff and, most recently, Central Dauphin.
David Chong, Peter Novikov, Mark Sandow and Jerry Zhang were winners in all three duals, Chong and Sandow in singles and Novikov and Zhang in doubles competition, albeit with different partners.
The Little Lions swept to victory over both at Gettysburg on April 10 and at home against Cedar Cliff on April 12. State was a 4-1 winner at Central Dauphin on April 17.
Most of the matches with the Rams were competitive. Chong was pushed to three sets in third singles before prevailing over Conner Graul, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, and the first doubles tandem of Novikov and William Liu needed to win a first-set tiebreak against Aidan O’Neill and Robert Eiswert, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
In first singles, Sandow trimmed Elijah Noll, 7-5, 6-4. Zhang and Reed Melvin were 6-2, 6-3 winners over Joshua Billett and Alex Mendelson in second doubles, 6-2, 6-3.
Mike Chotiner denied the Little Lions a shutout by outlasting the Little Lions’ Zemu Zhang in second singles in three sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.
The Little Lions only dropped six games against Cedar Cliff, with Chong beating Hunter Kennedy, the duo of Novikov and Zac Mroz stopping Nick Wilson and Noah Gallo and the combination of Jerry Zhang and Zack Aneckski downing Jackson Dibble and Trent Sunday by identical 6-0, 6-1 scores.
Sandow defeated James Bechtal, 6-1, 6-0, while Zemu Zhang topped Leland Pierce, 6-0, 6-2.
The doubles teams of Liu and Novikov and Melvin and Jerry Zhang took prominence at Gettysburg, both winning love-love over Josh Fair and Mark Thornberg and Nico Oshinak and Luke Blaney, respectively.
Zemu Zhang had the most dominating singles match, beating Tristin Smith, 6-0, 6-1. Both Sandow and Chong were 6-1, 6-1 victors, Sandow over Spencer Kennedy and Chong against Linden Amsler.
