It is not very often that a “home” team in the state tournament plays a match on the road, let alone before its school day on campus even ends.
For a variety of reasons outside of its control, especially courtesy of Mother Nature, the Bridgewater-Raritan High School boys’ tennis team did just that in their state playoff opener on Thursday afternoon, May 22.
But just a short time into Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s final block of classes on this date, the Panthers got the job done and advanced to the state sectional quarterfinals – quite possibly, even making it back to campus at the same time or even before dismissal.
Despite its deceiving amount of just two victories amongst arguably the strongest regular-season schedule amongst its state sectional playoff field, Bridgewater-Raritan (3-10) was awarded the No. 6 seed by the state tournament seeding committee and home-court advantage against 11th-seeded Elizabeth High School (6-8) to begin the NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 state sectional tournament
Both teams had to schedule their meeting early in the afternoon at a neutral site in anticipation of the day’s inclement weather, but the Panthers’ grueling regular-season slate ultimately paid off en route to a big 5-0 victory for Bridgewater-Raritan at the Garden State Tennis Center in Edison.
“Any win is a good win,” said Bridgewater-Raritan head coach EvanRosenberg, who has now led his team to first-round playoff victories in each of his two seasons in charge.
“It’s easy to build on wins and losses, but this was a good first-round matchup for us in getting us feeling how to win again, and hopefully we can take this momentum into Tuesday.”
Bridgewater-Raritan (3-10) was rewarded with a trip to third-seeded Columbia High School (6-5) for the quarterfinal round. Tuesday, May 27, at the Baird Center in South Orange.
Against Elizabeth, Bridgewater-Raritan swpet the singles behind Sid Balasubramian, Bradon Wu Gurucharan Mannur. Nicholas Braushle and Devn Patel won at first doubles and Aditya Shetty and Kanaya Mehta captured second doubles for Bridgewater-Raritan.