Boys Tennis Cruises To 5-0 Win Over Bishop Connolly

Led by a strong performance from top singles player Quinn Keating, the Nantucket boys tennis team handily defeated the Bishop Connolly Cougars 5-0 Tuesday afternoon at home to improve their record to 4-3.

“I thought Quinn played fantastic today,” head coach David Cheever said. “He was just right on as he needed to be. I expected him to win once I saw they were missing their number one player who is really good, and Quinn was all worked up to play that kid on clay instead of hard courts, but he played really well today.”

Keating won his match in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 followed by second single Boyan Kalpazanov winning his match 6-4, 6-2, and third single Henry Kathawala winning his match 6-1, 6-0.

On the doubles end of things for Nantucket, senior Wes Thornewill had the opportunity to play his first ever varsity match alongside promising freshman Nik Krastev. The pairing left little doubt as to what the result would be of their match, winning in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.

“That was fun and I didn’t get the same questions we got out of Silas (Moore) last year – everyone is getting nervous,” Cheever said. “We decided to play Wes because the girls tennis team got canceled so his father Luke (head coach of the girls tennis team) was there and with Wes going off to college, it was a chance for Luke to watch his son play varsity tennis.”

The quickest match of the afternoon may have been Aidan Sullivan and Hunter Gross, a pair of seniors on the second doubles team. They won in straight sets 6-0, 6-0.

“Aidan only had one double fault and they only gave up two points in the first set and three points in the second set,” Cheever said. “So that is why that match was so quick. It was a good performance.”

The Whalers, who were ranked #6 in the latest MIAA power rankings which came out on Tuesday, will look to improve to 5-3 this season when they travel to the Cape to take on Sturgis West in a 4 p.m. road matchup with the Navigators.