Bears still the king of the GMC’s courts

BY RICHARD JEROME
Staff Writer

SCOTT PILLING staff East Brunswick’s Roger Wang has played exceptionally well for the Bears this year, and took first at third singles in the recent GMCTournament in Edison. With a typically excellent 14-2 record, the East Brunswick High School boys tennis team has exceeded coach Bill Pellagrino’s expectations.

“We’re doing a little better than I expected, given our tough schedule,” he said of the Bears, whose losses came against Moorestown and Newark Academy, two of the state’s top-ranked teams.

In the hot seat at first singles, senior Ross Cohn has a 10-5 record, showing a fine baseline game.

“He’s very aggressive and gets to everything,” said the coach.

Senior Ilya Kazakin-Kutez is at second singles, with only two losses.

“He’s another baseliner and a big server, with good ground strokes,” Pellagrino said.

Another senior, Roger Wang, is at number three, and finished first in the recent Greater Middlesex Conference tournament. Wang, who has three losses this spring, is a strong server and volleyer who moved up from doubles.

Both doubles teams came away with GMC titles. The first duo of senior newcomer Ronald Udasin and sophomore Neil Mirchandani has three defeats, with lefty Udasin a mobile player and his sophomore partner a strong server with solid ground strokes.

“Ronald moves extremely well and has great hand-and-eye coordination, and Neil has excellent control,” Pellagrino said.

At second doubles, 10th-graders Shane Yapa and Ken Shyu have two losses in their first season with the varsity. Both are fine ground strokers.

The Bears played Piscataway yesterday, meet St. Joseph’s of Metuchen today and have a match with Edison tomorrow.

Three-of-five not

bad news for Bears

When the Bears advanced players to all five matches of the Greater Middlesex Conference’s Tennis Tournament, there were some rumblings of a possible sweep.

After all, the Bears have been the conference’s dominant team from day one this spring, piling up victory after victory in singles and doubles play alike.

But a pair of the GMC’s other elite players had their say on Monday, as the Bears were forced to settle for three-out-of-five titles.

After North Brunswick’s Gaurav Singh knocked off the Bears’ Ross Cohn at first singles, and Old Bridge’s Jaishal Patel topped EB’s Ilya Kazakin-Kuteyez at second singles, it was up to Roger Wang to stop the bleeding for the Bears.

The result was the match of the day.

Matched up against St. Joseph’s Christian Bosoy, a 6-foot-5 power-hitter, Wang won a thrilling three-set match, bouncing back after dropping the first set to win the three-hour marathon, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5.

With both players giving championship efforts on every point, it was Wang who persevered, overcoming Bosoy’s talents and his own fatigue to get the Bears on the board.

The Bears’ other two wins came in doubles play, where they swept first and second doubles.

At first doubles, the team of Udasin and Mirchandani topped the South Brunswick tandem of Steve Yu and Abe Alexander, 6-4, 7-5. At second doubles, Yap and Shyu beat the Vikings’ Brian Binder and Shuang Yang, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

The first singles title match featured a pair of players eager to claim the spot of the conference’s top players.

Less than a month ago, Singh topped Cohn in a three-set match, yet still entered Monday’s final with plenty to prove.

In the first set, it was Cohn who was the aggressor, winning the first stanza, 6-4. Singh answered with a quick 4-1 lead in the second set before Cohn roared back to tie it at 4-3, but it was all Singh from there, as he took the second set, 6-4, and the third, 6-2, to claim the championship.

At second singles, Kazakin-Kuteyev entered the final as somewhat of a favorite, having already beaten Patel earlier this season. However, Patel had beaten Kazakin-Kuteyez in last year’s third singles final in a thrilling come-from-behind effort.

This time around, however, Patel was up to the challenge, winning the match with surprising ease, 6-2, 6-0.

In the consolation matches, South Brunswick’s Rohan Patkar beat Old Bridge’s Ryan Glubo, 6-3, 6-4, at first singles; while Old Bridge’s Sunil Kesevan beat South Brunswick’s Najeeb Hussain at third singles, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

— Vin Rapolla contributed to this story