A fantastic season has come to a close for the Barrington High School boys tennis team.  

At the Division I State Championship Finals at Brown University on Saturday, Barrington lost to LaSalle, 4-0. 

Although the aggregate score may seem lopsided, this match was grueling for both parties. Doubles starter Dawen Cheng said pre-game that “Win or lose, we fight to the last point.” 

Cheng couldn’t have been more accurate: although the Eagles lost their first three matches, the final nail in the coffin was a tough loss in the third doubles match which went down to the wire. After going down 1 set to none, Cheng and Jack Lardner battled back to even the match at one apiece. The race to win the last set became more and more dire, as each player got news of the current aggregate score (La Salle needing one more victory to take the championship). 

As the third set winded down, La Salle was able to pull ahead, breaking a 5-5 tie, winning the third set 7-5, and capturing the state championship. 

The remaining singles matches, featuring Scott Sapolsky, Luke Sapolsky and Jeremy Kuo, were closely contested and winding down to the bottom of their respective third sets before they were suspended. 

The second place finish is an improvement over the team’s finish a year ago. Last season, the Eagles lost to Moses Brown in the semifinal round. This season, the Eagles bested the Quakers to reach a finals showdown against La Salle. And with the ascension into varsity status for several young players, the Eagles have a lot going for them heading into 2023. 

First-year Barrington High School head coach Story Salit said after the match that “It’s been such an incredible year, with a great mix of personalities meshing together. They’ve been so great to work with, and the fact that they bought in and believed in me even though some of them are better than me just means so much to this team. They’ve believed in each other the whole way and I’m so proud of them.”

Scoring summary

First singles: Scott Sapolsky — match suspended

Second singles: Luke Sapolsky — match suspended

Third singles: Vineet Abbineni — lost

Fourth singles: Jeremy Kuo — match suspended

First doubles: Sumedh Anathakrishna and Charlie Martin — lost

Second doubles: Zach Speak and Bryce Kupperman — lost

Third doubles: Jack Lardner and Dawen Cheng — lost