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Boys Varsity Tennis
Game Summaries & Headlines.
Game Summary
4.0 years ago @ 11:02AM
Boys Varsity Tennis vs. Mercyhurst Prep School
- Game Date
- May 14, 2019
Indiana 3 Mercyhurst Prep 2
Another match, another opportunity for new heros. Indiana's #1 doubles team of Cormac Pagnucci and Sammy Szep pulled of a dramatic win in a third set tiebreaker just prior to Indiana's Joey Bujdos completing a straight set win at #2 singles to clinch the team win in the PIAA preliminary round match vs. Mercyhurst Prep held at Oxford Athletic Club in Wexford. Adding to the drama was the fact that Indiana's #1 singles player, Zach Palko, was dealing with an injury in his match which occured when he slipped chasing down a ball during the third game of his match.
"Zach, a lefty, played a two hour, three set match serving underhand and at times playing right handed after he injured a finger on his left hand. How he stayed in the match is beyond me but somehow he just kept at it. He actually plays right handed in practice sometimes just for fun so he wasn't completely just making stuff up." (Coach Palko)
"Joey's match had 100 shot rallies as neither player could outright end a point. He played 10 less games than Zach and their matches ended at about the same time. Joey just toughed out the long points and played very steady". (Coach Palko)
"It was great to see Cormac and Sammy come through. It wasn't as dramatic as Evan Ray's win to close out the WPIAL title match since Evan's match was the only one going at the time but to pull out a third set tiebreaker is a huge accomplishment since there's a lot of pressure with every point. It's also a nice win since Cormac and Sammy lost a pretty one sided match last week vs. Quaker Valley." (Coach Palko)
Indiana's first point of the day came at #2 doubles as Hammad Affan and Philip Colen won in straight sets. the team travels to Hershey on Friday to take on Wyoming Seminary in the team quarterfinals. This is the fourth consecutive year Indiana has advanced to Hershey.
"We really want to keep this going. Friday will be another opportunity for some excitement." (Coach Palko)
IHS is 15-4
Singles:
1. Neal Chen (MP) d. Zachary Palko 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
2. Joey Bujdos (I) d. Alex Miklinski 6-4, 6-1
3. Nick Mecca (MP) d. Evan Ray 6-3, 7-6(4)
Doubles:
1. Sammy Szep and Cormac Pagnucci (I) d. Jacky Li and Nathan Freeman 1-6, 6-2, 7-6(3)
2. Hammad Affan and Philip Colen (I) d. Nevan Vodzak and Joe Sorce 6-2, 7-5
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