St. Anthony's Tennis Wins CHSAA Title

The and boys tennis teams met for the third year in a row at the Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA finals at Hofstra University on Thursday afternoon.

The two teams who have been dominant in Catholic league play did not disappoint the onlookers who were on hand for the match.

Both teams battled back and forth with Chaminade and St. Anthony’s trading matches with only first doubles left on the court and the score tied at three.

The Flyers’ team of Mike Lem and Rob Buetti took the first set before going deep into the third set against Friars duo Ryan Wennberg and John Sanders.

Down 5-4 in the third, Buetti and Lem missed a couple of key points to hand the Friars game, set and match.

“It was a tough loss,” Lem, the Flyers team captain, said. “We’ve played this team for the last two years and they are definitely tough competitors. There were some key points that we needed to have to win the match but we didn’t get.”

First singles player J.T Esposito had his hands full with John D’Alessandro. D’Alessandro worked him around the court winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-4.

Chaminade’s second singles Erik Lobben won his match 6-3, 6-1 defeating the Friar’s Chris Schwab.

Third singles Rich DeGregoris also had a good day knocking off Nick Schwab in three sets.

The second doubles team of Will Brosnan and Pat O’Hara lost 6-3, 6-3.

Fourth doubles Matt Romano and Ethan Handa won 6-0, 6-3.

“It was a great match right to the end,” Chaminade coach Jim Quinn said. “A few points in our favor and we would have gotten a victory but they are a solid team who played hard right to the end.”