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Transition is no problem for Solon netters
(by Tony Lange - April 18, 2012)
Transition is no problem for Solon netters
By TONY LANGE
Near perfect, Solon's tennis team improved to 4-0 last week, winning 19 of 20 matches along the way.
The Comets beat Mayfield, 5-0, Shaker Heights, 5-0, North Olmsted, 5-0, and Hawken School, 4-1.
After having the same varsity seven for two years straight, Solon graduated four senior starters from last year's squad and filled those spots with three sophomores and a freshman.
The four guys brought up are very capable and experienced tennis players, head coach Chris Klampe said.
"They're a little green as far as varsity tennis is concerned, but we have the advantage of they all have good junior tennis experience," he said. "So really, it's been a pretty seamless transition."
Leading the team as the only senior this season, Andrew Branstetter has been mixing it up on the third singles court and the first doubles court.
Against Hawken, Branstetter teamed with sophomore Dillon O'Brien to beat Adam Lee and Max Pollock, 6-2, 6-2.
Last year, Branstetter played doubles with O'Brien's older brother, Liam, who graduated and now attends John Carroll University.
"I played with him my sophomore year and my junior year," Branstetter said of Liam. "It's cool playing with the two different brothers. It's a different experience, but the weird thing is they have a lot of similarities on the court. They're both tall and have big serves and a powerful volley. So it's nice having a similar person to play with, because it's like I've been playing with him for two years in a way, because I've been playing with his brother. So it made it much easier to get used to for us."
When Branstetter plays singles, however, O'Brien teams with sophomore Rushil Shah on the doubles court, which is a bit of a transition, O'Brien said.
"It's different styles, because Rushil is left-handed, so there's a different mind-set with that, because he has the slice to go out wide, and then playing with Andrew, he's taller, so he can get up at the net more," said O'Brien, who played second singles last year while on junior varsity as a freshman. "I've always liked doubles more than singles actually, because I like being up at the net and stuff, but either way I like playing. So it's fun either way."
As O'Brien played with Branstetter on the first doubles court against Hawken, Shah played on the second doubles court and teamed with sophomore Eric Goldberg. They won their match, 6-0, 6-0.
Meanwhile, on the first singles court, Solon varsity returner David Shankman, a junior, had a battle on his hands against Hawken's Sid Ahuja. It was one of those matches where whoever gave up a service game first would lose any given set of the match.
Shankman happened to come out on top, 7-5, 6-4.
"Today was a great match. I'm good friends with Sid, and I've played him a lot, and I knew coming in it was going to be a tough match, and I was just happy I was able to pull it out and play tough," said Shankman, who played mainly second singles last season. "And I like the competition that I'm getting in first singles. It's great, because every school has a good first player, so every match I come into I'm going to have tough competition."
On the third singles court, Solon freshman Nam Le beat Hawken's Marshall Rankin, 6-0, 6-2. Le also has played doubles this season, and he teams with Goldberg when doing so.
As Solon clinched the victory against Hawken after about an hour and 20 minutes, No. 2 singles court contenders Brian Yang, a Solon junior, and Dan Lubarski, a Hawken senior, had no intention of throwing in the towel.
The two went on to play a three-setter that lasted more than 2 1/2 hours. It was a match where patiently limiting mistakes with consistent play was more of a key as the volleys were long lasting.
Lubarski went on to win a 7-6 tiebreaker in the third match.
Up next, Solon will travel to Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy at 4:15 p.m. April 19.
Hawken will travel to Orange at 4 p.m. April 19.
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