Bears advance in state tennis tournament

The second-seeded East Brunswick Bears have advanced to the semifinals of the Central Jersey Group IV tennis tournament.

East Brunswick topped seventh-seeded Hillsborough, 4-1, on Tuesday in the quarterfinals. First singles player Vivek Subramanian, the second seed in the upcoming state individual tournament, led the way with a 6-0, 6-0 win, while the Bears also got wins from Ross Cohn at second singles, Jay Kaplan and Ilya Kazakin at first doubles, and Dave Liu and Jonathan Cohn at second doubles. With the win, the GMC-champion Bears improved to 15-1 on the year, and earned a shot at third-seeded J.P Stevens today in the semis.

In the other semifinal, top-seeded Marlboro takes on Bridgewater-Raritan. Marlboro is the overwhelming favorite to emerge from the CJ Group IV bracket, fresh off their shocking upset of the state’s No. 1 team, Newark Academy. The Mustangs have dominated the Shore Conference scene this season, with dominant play in both singles and doubles competition.

If both Marlboro and East Brunswick advance as expected, it would set up an excellent sectional final, which would include match-ups of some of the top players in the state. At first singles, Marlboro features a freshman, John Boym, who is a nationally ranked junior player, with just one loss this season. That loss came to Ocean Township’s Gal Horovits, who is also among the top seeds in the upcoming state individual tournament.

However, each of the respective match-ups between Marlboro and East Brunswick would be intriguing, with the Bears having as good a chance as anybody in Group IV at knocking off the state’s top team.

The South River Rams played their CJ Group I first-round match on Tuesday, and fell to fifth-seeded Shore Regional, 4-1.