Boy’s Tennis Wins 11th Straight Match Monday

The Pirates boy’s tennis team won its 11th straight match on Monday with a 5-0 win over Burlington Township to move to 11-2 overall.

“We only had about 10 minutes to warm up so we used it for them to get back into the flow of things,” head coach Mike Fries said. Just to loosen up and get ready this week because it is a big week with five matches.”

The victory puts the Pirates in good position for a rematch with Rancocas Valley tomorrow at Wood Park. The Pirates lost to the Red Devils 3-2 in their second match of the season.

“They’re very focused on tomorrow’s match,” Fries said. “They are confident that we are going to beat them tomorrow, but not too overconfident.”

Back to today’s victory for boy’s tennis, which is just one of five matches on the week for the Pirates with the addition of a first-round playoff game added on Friday.

The Pirates learned during their match today that the team earned the #5 seed in the South, Group 2 Tournament, which begins play on Wednesday, May 11.

Cinnaminson will host #12 Delsea in the first round of the playoffs.

“We want to win tomorrow, but we’re going to use tomorrow to prepare for the playoffs,” Fries said of the match with R.V. Tuesday.

“It’s not a division game, so that doesn’t matter. It will be a blemish on the record if we end up losing. It will be a great tuneup for the tournament playing a school like R.V.”

The Pirates made quick work of the Falcons on Monday, needing just a little less than an hour to win the necessary three matches for the overall victory.

The final two victories came within minutes of the Pirates taking a 3-0 lead on the day.

The first and second doubles teams won their matches by 6-0, 6-1 and 6-0, 6-0 scores on Monday. The win for the second doubles team of George Rider and James Merget was the 11th consecutive for the duo.

“The second doubles team is really looking forward to paybacks from last time when they lost in three sets,” Fries said. “They’ve won 11 in a row and they’re looking forward to that matchup tomorrow and hopefully pull out a win.”

Their last loss came against Rancocas Valley in the second match of the season.

“Their mentality has been strong,” Fries said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re down 3-1 or 4-1, they know they can fight back and win. I think the mentality part of it has been the biggest difference.”

Cinnaminson is 7-0 in the Freedom and has its sights set on a division title. Standing in their way are two showdowns with rival Holy Cross.

“We have Holy Cross on Thursday and again next Thursday,” Fries said. “If we knock them off twice, the division’s ours. Being a close rival to us, we really want those matches.”

Cinnaminson returns to the court Tuesday, May 10 at 3:45pm to take on Rancocas Valley at Wood Park.

“R.V. might come in confident knowing they beat us last time,” Fries said. “They probably have no idea we’ve won 11 in a row. The mental aspect is huge coming into tomorrow to pull that win out.”

MATCH RESULTS

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