Thursday, October 23, 2008

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

WEST WINDSOR – Even though they had rarely been challenged the entire season and were ranked as the state’s No. 2 ranked team, the Ramapo girls tennis team had a daunting task ahead of it to make their first-ever Tournament of Champions. To get there, the Green Raiders had to get by Millburn, which has won the last two Tournament of Champions titles and held the second longest winning streak in New Jersey history (92 straight matches) coming into the Group 3 final. To put it bluntly, Ramapo needed to play a perfect match to win and it almost did just that.

Danielle Weiner’s three-set win at second singles evened the match at 2, but Millburn freshman Alexandra Stone bounced back from dropping the second set at third singles. She raced out to a 3-0 lead in the third set and held off a furious rally by Ramapo’s Erin Nerlino to end Ramapo’s season with a 3-2 defeat.

“I have to say that I was scared to death because I thought Ramapo matched up well against us,” said Millburn head coach Elliot Lovi. “We needed to come up with some great performances just to get out of here with a win. It was nice that both teams brought out the best tennis in one another and it was a great match.”

Millburn’s second doubles team of Haley Draznin and Meredith Fischler took control early and cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Ramapo’s Katie Nerlino and Ashley Garabaccio.

Ramapo answered with a point at first singles. Freshman sensation Amanda Muliawan won in surprisingly easy fashion 6-2, 6-2 over Millburn’s Rachel Cantor, who was the top seed in this year’s state singles tournament, to even the match.

Millburn’s first doubles team, Emily Bary and Melissa Mann, just won the state doubles championship last week, beating Ramapo’s Kelly Mitchell and Kerry Irwin in straight sets in the semifinal round. It would not be as easy this time around. Mitchell and Irwin both played well at the net in taking the first set before falling 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. This meant that both Weiner and Nerlino had to come back from a set down to pull off upsets.

After being broken by Millburn’s Sabrina Fedele to end the first set, Weiner jumped out to early leads in both the second and third sets by mixing up her pace to take control. She never trailed again in winning her biggest individual match of the year with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

Nerlino was in a similar position after losing the first five games of the match and dropping the first set. She clawed her way back into the match with a steady baseline game and forced a second-set tiebreak. The senior was at her best in the tiebreak winning the final four points to force a third set.

Unfortunately, the momentum did not carry over into the deciding set as Stone hit one big shot after another. She grabbed a 4-1 lead, but Nerlino gave it everything she had to stay in the match. Nerlino broke serve, then held to cut it to 4-3. But Stone kept hitting big shots on crucial points, including a backhand pass to hold serve before breaking Nerlino to end the match and keep the winning streak intact.

“Rachel (Cantor) and Sabrina (Fedele) get a lot of the credit, but what we have done requires a team effort,” added Lovi. “Alex (Stone) and our doubles teams really got the job done today under very tough circumstances. We were in major trouble in a couple of our matches, but all of our kids battle out there on the court. We just battled to the very end. Ramapo is class program and definitely the best team we faced this year by far and I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing we don’t have to face them again this season.”

The win put Millburn at 27-0 and extended its winning streak to an eye-popping 93 consecutive matches. Ramapo’s season came to a close with a final record of 22-1, the best season in the program’s history. They got to the final by beating previously undefeated Wall Township, 3-2, in the Group 3 semis. The Green Raiders got victories from both doubles tandems and Muliawan at first singles.

“I am so, so proud of what these kids did today,” said Ramapo head coach Kim Marchese. “It could have ended a little bit better for us. But to knock off a team as strong and as deep as they are, everything has to break the right way. I have no constructive criticism for any of our kids. They all played their ‘A’ games and we just happened to come up a little short against the best team in the state. There is no shame in that whatsoever and I’m proud of all that we accomplished.”

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