Morris County run ends in third round

WEST WINDSOR – It was one-and-done for Morris County on the second day of the NJSIAA Singles and Doubles Tennis Tournament.

After Saturday’s opening two rounds of play, four of the top singles players and a pair of doubles teams from Morris County returned to Mercer County Park in West Windsor and Veterans Park in Hamilton Township in an attempt to get through the next two rounds and advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinals. But when the third round was complete on Sunday, Morris County had come up empty.

The highest seed to exist was Randolph’s Mitchel Sanders, the two-time defending Morris County Tournament first singles champion who dropped a tough 7-6 (4), 7-5 decision to Dwight-Englewood freshman Dan Nuzhny. Sanders, a senior and the tournament’s sixth seed, held 5-2 leads in both sets but failed to close the deal against Nuzhny, the No. 27 seed, who had defeated Sanders in three sets (super-tiebreaker) in their regular-season meeting earlier this year.

“I think I relaxed a little bit too much with the lead and didn’t step in and close the set,” Sanders said. “I got too passive and started to doubt myself. I didn’t play well at all in our first meeting and I wanted to hit the ball deep and pressure him more this time. I just didn’t get it done when it mattered most.”

Sanders’ opponent in this year’s Morris County Tournament final, Chatham’s Yanik Parsch, also saw his run end in the third round on Sunday when he was blitzed by Wardlaw-Hartridge’s Satish Kumar, the No. 10 seed, who posted a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Parsch, who returned to high school tennis this spring after a two-year hiatus, was disappointed in his effort.

“I’m not happy with the way this ended,” Parsch said. “We’ve had close matches in the past and he was able to get to every ball and keep me pinned to the baseline and hit a lot of winners. I really didn’t give myself a chance.”

Delbarton’s Justin Wang, seeded 17th, also bowed out in the third round when No. 16 Kabir Sarita of West Windsor-Plainsboro South posted a 6-2, 6-2 victory over the Green Wave sophomore who finished 15-4 on the year after transferring from Blair Academy.

“He’s a really good player and I did the best I could but he won the crucial points,” said Wang, who will return to the top of the Delbarton singles lineup next spring.

Sanders’ teammate, Justin Gold, who plays second singles for the Rams, fell on the Stadium Court to Newark Academy’s Dylan Flanagan, who plays third singles for the Minutemen, 6-2, 6-1.

Things weren’t much better for area teams at Veterans Park and the second round of doubles competition, where Morris County Tournament first doubles champions Cooper Seligson and Stefan Luong of Randolph easily won the first set against J.P. Stevens’ Brian Ho and Arjun of Kirshnan before suffering a heartbreaking 1-6, 6-3, 11-9 defeat.

Chatham’s Charles LaMantia and Paul Ivans also had their moments in their second-round match against No. 12 Tom Heitzman and Adam Mohsen-Breen of Moorestown Friends, but came out on the short end of 6-2, 7-5 decision.