By CHRISTOPHER TREMBLAY, Staff Sports Writer

Last spring the Shepherd Hill boys tennis team was only able to secure four or five wins, but this year Coach Michael Rapoza had some newcomers join the team and the Rams were able to punch their ticket to the Division 2 State Tournament. Shepherd Hill posted a 13-4 regular season record, including an 11-game winning streak as they head into the post-season.

“We had a talented group of athletes that came together this year,” Rapoza said. “We only had three returners and the rest were newcomers, a lot of them being multiple sport athletes that competed every day.”

Shepherd Hill will square off against Somerville in a preliminary round match with the winner going to number two seed Westborough.

Senior Ryan Brooks, who played first singles for the Rams, was the biggest reason behind Shepherd Hill’s success. The senior went 14-2 overall (8-1 in the Midwatch League) and according to Rapoza, he set the tone for the team all year long.

“He makes us better in practice. Last year he was an All-Star, this year he was the league MVP,” the Shepherd Hill coach said. “By winning at first singles he allows the other players to go out and play their game, knowing they only need to go 2-2 the rest of the way to be victorious. We’ve had a lot of close matches so that was important.”

The Rams have another senior playing second singles, but while he has played for the high school he did not play last season. Nick Veronis took last spring off but decided to return to the team this year.  He was very competitive going up against some of the talented players in the league and was able to hold his own. 

Rounding out the singles circuit was junior Adrian Roach, a soccer player who decided to give tennis a shot this season. Coming from a tennis family, he was right at home on the court where he was named a league All-Star by going 11-2 (6-1 in the league) at the third singles position.

Playing on the doubles courts, Rapoza has two tandems that are pretty much opposites. First doubles junior Luke Poirier is not only a returning athlete from last year’s team, but he is the only constant. Rapoza has three other tennis players in sophomore Reid Szela, senior Alek Poirier and junior Nick Dameli who will have rotated into first doubles as the teammate of the younger Poirier.

“All three bring something different to the table each time they take to the court,” Rapoza said. “I rotated them in and out all yar depending on the situation and how they were playing.”

While Poirier never knows who is playing with on a regular basis, the second doubles team has gotten consistent play all year long. Freshman Tyler Heath and junior Zach Wennerberg (his first year playing tennis) went an impressive 9-5 this spring. The duo both also play basketball and worked extremely hard this season.

“They had some rough stretches with their shots, but their athletic ability allowed them to get to balls and keep plays alive,” the Rams Coach said. 

Prior to the season the coach knew that his team would come out fighting, but he never expected what his team was able to accomplish on the courts this spring.

“Coming in I thought that we’d be competitive, not necessarily to the extent that we’d finish second in the league, one game behind Nashoba (who we split with during the regular season) and getting a home match in the tournament,” Rapoza said. “We were able to knock off some pretty talented teams along the way, including teams that we have not had too much success against in the past. It was an impressive season.”

As the team heads into the Division 2 Tournament, the coach noted that they are not going to change anything and just go out and play the way that they’ve played all season long. 

“We are going to do what we’ve done to get here, play solid matches and see how far it takes us,” the coach said. “If we do get through that first round we’re going to have to go up against a powerhouse, where we’ll need to play at our best.”