May 25, 2010
Bees win fourth straight title
Bayonne's Igor Pomyluyko won his second singles match in straight sets.
Click Here for photos from Bayonne vs Secaucus.
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
JERSEY CITY - Success and titles is nothing new for the Bayonne boys tennis team. Yesterday was no exception as six members of the squad were presented with the plaques from their victories from the Hudson County Individual Championships.
But as they posed with the honors of prior success, they knew there was more work – a fourth straight county championship, to be done.
Those Bees brought even more championship hardware back with them to the Peninsula City as they defeated Secaucus 3-2 in the title match of the Hudson County Boys Tennis Team Tournament at Lincoln Park.
“I thought we were reasonably strong from top to bottom,” Bayonne coach Bill Broderick said. “We were certainly competitive in all five categories. “
The five titles (four individual ones and the team championship) was just the latest example of the dominance that Bayonne (25-2) has had in Hudson County. They had lost just one match within the county, a 3-2 decision to these same Patriots on May 6.
“It taught us that we can be beaten and we have to play smart,” said third singles player Vincent Maggio. “We can’t just let things happen, we have to go get it.”
The Bees had gotten a small measure of payback in the individual tournaments as the doubles teams of Peter Cappello/George Noutsopoulos and Andro Mossad/Youssef Rizk they defeated Secaucus head-to-head for the First Doubles and Second Doubles titles on May 13.
“When we played them the second time, we definitely had a game plan,” said Broderick, noting Cappello/Noutsopoulos were hurt by the Patriots’ net play in the loss. “We executed it perfectly and won the title in straight sets. We stayed with the game plan.”
“It was great (revenge),” said Noutsopoulos about the win in the rematch earlier in the month. “We came out with a lot of confidence from our last match (with them). We used it to our advantage.”
Noutsopoulos and Cappello built off that confidence to win the third showdown between them and the Patriots’ first doubles duo of Shay Laro and Auren Manalo 6-1, 6-3 yesterday.
“We kept hitting it more toward the weaker player,” Noutsopoulos said. “We worked on our strokes and our consistency. That’s what led us to the victory.”
Cappello and Noutsopoulos’ victory was the one difference from yesterday’s five matches compared to the regular season meeting between these two teams.
The rest of the matches saw the same result as back on May 6. Igor Pomyluyko gave the Bees a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Miten Patel in second singles. Maggio topped Xavier Espinosa 6-3, 6-3 in third singles.
After losing the second doubles title during the individual championships, the Secaucus tandem of Daniel Kim and Chirag Patel won the rubber match against Bayonne’s Andro Mossad and Youssef Rizk. Kim and Patel overcame a rough second set to earn a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 victory in the match.
Joshua Halpern gave the Patriots a win in first singles by defeating Nader Salem 6-2, 6-3 in the day’s final match, but by then Bayonne had already clinched the championship.
Yesterday’s victory marked the third time the Bees have four-peated as champions. Bayonne has made the finals in each of the past 18 seasons (winning 13) and has captured 19 titles during Broderick’s 33 years at the helm of the program.
Even with that many titles under his belt, it’s a feeling that has yet to get old
“They all have their own little idiosyncrasies and hard work,” Broderick said. “I could have been 33-for-33 and it’d still be as exciting as the first one was.”
Secaucus sophomore Joshua Halpern won his first singles match 6-2, 6-3.
| Bayonne 3, Secaucus 2 |
|---|
| Singles: Joshua Halpern, Secaucus, def. Nader Salem, 6-2, 6-3; Igor Pomyluyko, Bayonne, def.Miten Patel, 6-3, 6-1; Vincent Maggio, Bayonne, def. Xavier Espinosa, 6-3, 6-3. |
| Doubles: Peter Cappello/George Noutsopoulos, Bayonne def. Shay Laro/Auren Manalo, 6-1, 6-3; Daniel Kim/Chirag Patel, Secaucus def. Andro Mossad/Youssef Rizk, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. |