Neither Mother Nature nor its first opponent was at all kind to the Londonderry High boys’ tennis squad during the first week of its 2018 campaign last week.
During the span covering Monday, April 2 to Friday the 6th, coach Janice Norwesh’s LHS squad had four matches cancelled and one played. And in the one that was played, the Lancers took an 8-0 loss on the chin.
After having their season-opening match against Bedford cancelled by bad weather on Monday, the locals’ rescheduled contest against that opponent on Tuesday got snuffed out too. Then their Wednesday match with Bishop Guertin of Nashua got whacked as well.
But the Lancers finally got down to playing on the chilly afternoon of Thursday, April 5, at home against the tough, defending Division I champion Bedford High Bulldogs. And that opponent wound up winning handily, handing its host the 8-0 shutout defeat.
Among Londonderry’s best and closest singles battles were number three man Cam Ness’ contest, which wound up being an 8-4 loss. A little further down the ladder, number five man Tyler Cullen was handed an 8-2 loss despite a spirited effort.
Doubles action was considerably tighter thanks to the performances of the tandems of Ness and Cullen and Tanner Fortier and Ben Doris, which both dropped 8-5 decisions despite playing well.
“I’m very happy with the Lancers today,” said coach Norwesh. “Our goal each year against the state champs is to take more games. Not only did we improve that by about 25 percent, out numbers two and three doubles battled it out with great play from our new pairings of Cullen and Ness and and Doris and Fortier. They both just fell short to the Bulldogs.”
The next afternoon the locals were scheduled to face off with the Salem High Blue Devils on the New Hampshire/Massachusetts border, but that match was cancelled by April snow.
The Lancers then stepped into this week warily, not certain whether their Monday, April 9 match at home against tough Derryfield might be knocked off by a hurricane, tornado, blizzard, sleet, or even space debris re-entering earth’s atmosphere.
But the weather cooperated, and the Lancers evened their season record at 1-1 with a 5-4 win over that Derryfield crew.
The two teams each won three singles contests, with fourth, fifth, and sixth players Ryan Leo (8-2 win), Tyler Cullen (8-1), and Ben Doris (8-5) respectively taking wins for the locals.
Derryfield went up 4-3 with a win at first doubles, but the LHS tandems of Ness and Cullen (8-3) and Fortier and Doris (8-2) decided the match in their squad’s favor.
“Today was a good day,” said coach Norwesh. “It wasn’t looking too good at first when we lost our first three singles in some tough matches. But then senior captain Ryan Leo had a convincing 8-2 win at four, followed by senior captain Tyler Cullen dominating with an 8-1 victory. It was exciting to watch our new pairing of junior Doris and freshman Fortier close out our first win of the season with an 8-2 victory. I’m so proud of this deep team. Not one person will ever carry all the weight. It’s truly a team effort and a team win.”
The locals then strode ahead aiming at continuing their winning ways at Merrimack High on Wednesday, April 11 – after Londonderry Times press time – followed by a home battle against Exeter on Friday the 13th.