Tennis: Edgemont's Peng, Johnson make program history as state champs; other medal winners
Edgemont's boys tennis team has racked up 30 league titles over the years, but for the first time ever in the successful program's history, it can now say it has a boys state champion.
After becoming the Panthers' first Section 1 boys tennis doubles champions, junior Nick Peng and freshman Eli Johnson went even further and capped their dominant postseason run with a NYSPHSAA doubles title.
"Edgemont tennis doesn't have many state titles, so it feels amazing," Peng said. "It was a really good run and we had a lot of fun."
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In Sunday's state championship finale at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, they defeated the Horace Greeley tandem of Jason Wei and Matt Wallis, 6-3, 6-4.
"It was really cool, and we played really good," Johnson said. "We are both so tired, but we are grateful for the experience. It's amazing playing (at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center) because of all the great players that played there. We come here as fans all the time, but it's amazing to actually be a player here."
Peng and Johnson swept through their first couple opponents, but much like their run to the sectional title, their resolve was tested towards the end of the competitive tournament.
After building an early 4-1 lead, they dropped the first set of the semifinals to another Horace Greeley tandem, Adam Fink and Ben Singer. They battled back to win the next two to advance to the state championship match with their comeback, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win.
"I call them 'True Grit,'" said Edgemont coach Mark Romney, who got to enjoy his final day as head coach with his newly crowned state champs. "The way I look at it is, to win that state title, you have to actually win it twice. First, you gotta win sectionals, then essentially play the same teams again for the state title.
"These are single-elimination tournaments, so no second chance and in the semifinals of both tournaments to be down a set and come back against incredibly skillful teams from Greeley was just amazing. That was the turning point."
During the regular season, Peng and Johnson excelled as singles players, but when it came time to think of the postseason, their coaches recommended that they team up for a chance to go far.
It was a strange experience in the beginning, as first-time partners, but they quickly synergized with one another and while they always had confidence in one another, the outcome exceeded their expectations.
"Eli has magnificent hands and Nick is so steady at the baseline," said Edgemont coach Alexa Goldberg, who also won a state girls tennis doubles title for the Panthers in the fall of 2013. "They figured out that they both complement each other's games very well. They just needed one match under their belt, that first match at sectionals, and they realized how strong they really are. I believed they could do it, Coach Romney believed they could do it and the rest of Edgemont knew how strong they are."
Including their run through sectionals, they won a total of 10 straight postseason tournament matches to climb to the top.
Both are slated to return next year, but any chatter surrounding a title repeat is on hold. They haven't even made celebratory plans for Sunday's state championship win, they're just soaking in the moment and their life-changing accomplishment.
"It's really cool because our school doesn't have many state titles," Johnson said. "We knew we could do it, and we were able to. We don't really have much plans to celebrate, we're just gonna take it in. We're not exactly sure what's gonna happen next year, but we'll figure that out then."
Other medal finishers
Between the three singles players and four doubles tandems that qualified for the NYSPHSAA Tournament from Section 1, all of them placed in the top eight.
In singles play, Section 1 singles champion and White Plains standout Callum Markowitz finished in fifth place, after defeating Mamaroneck's Max Kalinin, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2. Kalinin finished in sixth.
Bronxville's Patrick Kenny took eighth-place, after falling to Jericho's Ajer Sher, 6-3, 6-4.
Aside from Edgemont's state championship duo, and Greeley runner-ups Wei and Wallis, Section 1 got two other top-five state finishers.
Horace Greeley's Fink and Singer took fourth place and earned all-state honors, after falling to Ward Melville's Gabe Bursztyn and Shashank Pennabadi, 6-4, 6-0.
Byram Hills' Jesse Goldstein and Mihir Kumar battled back from their quarterfinal loss and went on to take fifth after a couple of wins in the consolation bracket. In the fifth-place match, they defeated Friends Academy's Alistair Wright and Russell Notaris, 6-4, 7-5.
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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Tennis: Edgemont's Peng, Johnson make program history as state champs
