Cavaliers win tennis tournament, claim both singles brackets
Apr. 12—Thomas Jefferson claimed the top spot in its home tennis tournament Friday afternoon behind the lead of seniors Prithvi Nagarajan and LeLe Qian.
Nagarajan earned the championship in the No. 1 singles bracket while Qian took the top spot in the No. 2 singles bracket.
"That was kind of our goal to dominate that singles bracket," TJ head coach Tom Brumfield said. "They did that. That's our No. 1 and 2 players. If we can take care of singles in a tournament like this and have a strong showing in doubles, that can be a key to our success in tournaments."
TJ earned the team title with 21 points, ahead of Webb City with 18.5 and Monett with 15.5.
Webb City's Jake McDonald and Tristan Lynch topped TJ's Devan Murali and Jack Goodhue by an 8-1 score for the championship in the No. 1 doubles bracket.
Webb City also won the No. 2 doubles as Trevor Peterson and Easton McDonald outlasted Monett's Braxton Jackson and Frank Hurtado by a score of 9-8. The Cardinals won the tiebreaker by a score of 12-10.
In full, TJ won two events and was runner-up in one while taking third in the No. 2 doubles. Webb City won both doubles events and took third and fifth in the singles. Monett was runner-up in three events and took fourth in No. 1 doubles.
Nagarajan only lost one game on the way to his championship performance and that was in an 8-1 win over Webb City's Jacob Russell. He went on to defeat Tyler Moore of Mount Vernon 8-0 in the semifinals and Elijah Ridenour of Monett by the same score in the championship.
"I think I was able to play my best tennis out there," Nagarajan said. "I played some tougher matches and I was able to get through them. The biggest takeaway I have from this is the confidence and hopefully I can use that in more matches."
Ridenour was runner-up in the No. 1 singles bracket, and Moore defeated Carthage's Silas Lathem 8-6 for third place.
Qian also cruised to his tournament title. He did so without dropping a single game as he topped Brady Donaldson of Clever, Kaden Cox of Webb City and Heisman Crockett of Monett, all 8-0.
"I think I played my best today," Qian said. "I think it was really good competition. My opponents were very respectful, and I tried to be respectful to them."
Crocket finished runner-up while Cox ended up falling to Carthage's Danilo Lopez in the third-place match.
"Seeing this competition lets me see so many different people from different schools and different play styles," Qian added. "So it gets me used to everything. And it reminds me no matter how good I think I am, there's always other people who are good challenges for me. It keeps me humble and ready to play."
The Cavaliers got a second-place finish from the No. 1 doubles group of Murali and Goodhue. Ryker Faaborg and Yousuf Mokhtar took third in the No. 2 doubles bracket.
"We're looking to keep improving net play in doubles. That's a big thing," Brumfield said. "A lot of these teams are loaded up in doubles. It helps out our lower-level doubles to see these better doubles to improve."
This season is the first time Murali and Goodhue have paired up with one another and they've used this tournament and the early parts of the season to build chemistry and develop as a double team.
"This is probably some of the best tennis we've played so far so it's working really well," Murali added.
Learning each other's strengths and weaknesses along with which side of the court each other prefers to take is part of that development.
TJ is 5-1 on the season and now has a tournament championship under its belt. Postseason play begins in May and Brumfield talked about this event helping his guys prepare for that stage.
"It goes by fast, so now's the time to start trying to gain some momentum and confidence in what you're doing," he said.
