They're league title winners, but Fox Lane tennis players are stymied in sectionals

Curtis McConnell volleys at the net in a doubles match. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

By Jim MacLean

This was new territory for the Fox Lane boys varsity tennis team as the Foxes won their league title and earned the chance to compete in the Section 1 Division 1 team tournament where the No. 8 seed Foxes would host number-nine seed Clarkstown South.

Fox Lane won the league title with victories over Yorktown and White Plains to advance to the team tournament, but on a wet rainy day, the Foxes would move indoors to host the Vikings at the Saw Mill Genesis Club on Saturday, May 23, and with a depleted lineup they were no match for Clarkstown South, suffering a 6-1 defeat to finish the season at 8-6 overall.

“We won the league title for the first time in a long time, and that got us into the team tournament,” Fox Lane coach Scott Shannon said. “That was a very good team with very strong singles players. I’m not sure how we got seeded above them, and we were missing three seniors. 

The shot of the match

I had some junior varsity players out there, one of them was an eighth grader and he had the shot of the match for us. They were shell-shocked by the level of play by some of the better teams, but we’ll learn from it.”

Clarkstown South featured a veteran lineup, especially at the top three singles positions, to pull away for the victory.

For Fox Lane, senior Ryan Barone took the court at No. 1 singles, followed by freshman Michael Balkovski at second singles and senior Jacob Lerner at third singles, but the Vikings won all three matches in two sets.

In doubles, Mark Chen and Curtis McConnell teamed up at first doubles for Fox Lane and battled before falling by the score of 6-4, 6-3. Freshman Alex Lau and eighth-grader Mitchell Arkin teamed up at second doubles and pushed the Vikings hard before falling by a score of 6-4, 6-4.

The highlight for Fox Lane came at third doubles as Anthony D’Alisa and Gene Grogan teamed up for the win by a score of 7-5, 6-2.

Jacob Lerner returns a serve in singles match for Fox Lane.

A season to build on

Despite the final score of the match, Shannon admits it was a strong season for the Foxes overall and he has a lot of young players returning with a year of varsity experience under their belts for next season.

“Definitely, we have a young team, we lose a couple of seniors, but we have a lot of young talented players returning,” admitted Shannon. “Michael (Balkovski) is only a freshman and he is going to be very good. Our third singles player, freshman Will Assad was injured and had to pull out of the sectional tournament. Our eighth-grader, M.J. Arkin plays year round and he’s going to be some player, so we’re excited and looking forward to next year.”

Prior to the team tournament, a number of Fox Lane players competed in the Section 1 individual championships on the courts at Harrison on Saturday, May 18. 

In the singles tournament, Barone battled with two tight sets before falling by a score of 6-3, 7-5 to Divij Dogra of Edgemont. Assad was in the singles draw for the tournament but had to withdraw from an injury. In doubles, Mark Chen and Jacob Betensky competed for the Foxes and suffered a 6-3, 6-2 setback in the first round to Horace Greeley.