MORGANTOWN — Big comebacks in sports, when they happen, are captivating, so fans watching the University vs. Morgantown matches Wednesday at Marilla Park got a double dose.
While the state title contending MHS girls had little trouble in dispatching their crosstown rivals 7-0, there were two matches on the boys side that showed refusal to give up.
The doubles matches came first, and the MHS girls quickly ran through their matches, while on the boys side, the University No. 1 Kyle Hawthorne and Andre Barcinas and No. 2 Tommy McClellan and Jameson Walters won their matches handily.
But the Hawks’ No. 3 pairing of Levi Watson and Jack Giobbia found themselves trailing Morgantown’s Yechan Kweon and Dake LaSala 7-4 in their best of eight match. However, long after the rest of the singles matches had begun on the other courts, th No. 3 doubles match was still undecided after Watson and Giobba fought back to tie the match at 8-8, sending it to a tiebreaker.
That couldn’t have been tighter, either with UHS completing its escape from defeat with a thrilling 8-6 win in the tiebreaker.
“That was huge for us,” Hawks boys coach Tom McClellan said. “When they went down 7-4, I didn’t think they’d have enough time to recover their game and their poise and make it all the way back. That’s really tough to do in the one-set, 8-game format. But they scratched and clawed and fought, and basically ended up winning the match for us.”
After returning five players from last year’s team that finished one win away from a state title, the Morgantown girls seem poised for a strong run at the title this season, and they looked strong in the singles, as well.
No. 1 Emme McKnight continued her strong season with an 8-0 win over Maya Gharib, No. 2 Cat Wassick duplicated that score against Deah Gharib, Bella Mascari dropped one game to UHS No. 3 Grace Valenzuela, and No. 4 Ashalia Aggarwal defeated Taylor Dalton 8-2 to complete the sweep.
“I thought the girls were pretty impressive today,” Mohigans coach Ted Greenlee said. “They came ready to play, and stayed focused throughout their matches. Both of these teams know each other very well, and many of them train together, so they enjoy playing their friends. It was a very good day for us.”
Hawks coach Gary Barcinas agreed the Mohigans have a great shot at winning it all this year, and also liked the effort he saw in his Hawks.
“Lots of good fight, lots of good effort,” he said. “They just ran into a very deep, very powerful team, one of the best in the state. But in order to get better, you have to face the best, and we certainly see where we need to go. And we’re working hard to get there.”
Down 3-0 after the doubles, the Morgantown boys had to sweep the singles to win the match, and they nearly did, with identical 8-5 wins in the No. 3 (Griffy Bihun over McClellan) and No. 4 (Ben Shi over Walters) matches. But UHS No. 2 Barcinas used his strong all-around game and consistent ground strokes to dispatch Hamilton Hall 8-2 and clinch the 4-3 win for the Hawks.
However, the best match may have been No. 1s Hawthorne and Ben Rosiello. Up a break at 5-4, the lengthy Hawthorne used a variety of shots and placements to hold serve, promptly broke Rosiello to take a commanding 7-4 lead, and then quickly went up 40-love. But a couple unforced errors and some tense backcourt exchanges that went Rosiello’s way got the game to deuce.
Twice more, Hawthorne had the ad, but both times Rosiello fought back, finally winning the game to stay alive. Hawthorne bounced back to take a 15-40 lead in the next game, but once again couldn’t finish off the resilient Rosiello. Bouyed by saving 7 match points, the Hawks No. 1 roared all the way back, hitting out on service return winners, playing carefully when required, and eventually prevailed in the riveting match, 9-7.
“I just kept telling myself to be patient,” said an exhausted but grinning Rosiello after the match. “There’s no way I’ve ever won after saving seven match points before, because I’ve never been patient enough to keep from beating myself in the past. I’d always try to go for too much, try to end points too quickly. I don’t want to put myself in that position, but it gives me a lot of confidence that I can come all the way back like that.”
