As the sun set on Red Bug Lake Park in the Orlando area, Saint Andrew’s tennis rose.
It was razor-close and Saint Andrew’s needed a pair of comebacks to capture the state 1A championships in girls and boys tennis on Thursday night, April 30 at Red Bug.
The Scots boys and girls were each down 3-2 before each squad played its most clutch tennis. Each side won its last two matches that provided more state glory for coach Reid Rafter and his Boca Raton tennis dynasty.
It was 4-3 for the boys over its Miami rival, True North, and 4-3 for the girls, also over True North. The Scots’ girls have won 7 girls state titles and the boys 6 states since Rafter started running Saint Andrew’s tennis in 2016.
Saint Andrew’s boys were down 3-2 with two matches still on the court, No.1 singles Rafa Bote, the defending state individual singles champion, and freshman fifth singles Oliver Limon.
Bote prevailed 10-2 while Limon squeaked out a 10-8 thriller.
The girls followed a similar script of drama. The Scots were trailing 3-2 with No 2 singles Isabella Gonzelez and 8th-grade third singles Mercedes Laub still competing in the heat.
Gonzalez, whose father runs the FAU tennis program, won 6-3, 6-4 and Laub captured her match in a taut 7-6, (7-5), 6-4 that lasted over two hours.
The scorching-hot April day started early with the state semifinals with the boys beating Pine View and the girls topping Shore Crest of St. Petersburg. And it ended finally in the early evening.
“The resolve of these kids was tremendous,’’ Rafter said. “We started practice at 7:00 a.m. and we finished the finals at 8:00 p.m. To play that long and that hard in 90-degree heat and keep your level as high as they did is phenomenal.’’
And it all came down to Laub and Limon. The L and L didn’t stand for losing.
“We had an 8th grader Mercedes clinch for the girls and a 9th grader Limon clinch for the boys,’’ Reid said. “These kids played their first state championships and they were unreal. All our kids were unreal – top to bottom of the lineup.’’
On May 1, Bote will vie for his second straight 1A state individual singles title and also team up with partner Colin Wheat in the doubles finals. Gonzalez and Sofia Osipova are in the girls individual doubles finals.
AMERICAN HERITAGE TAKES 2A DOUBLES CROWNS
One day after winning the girls and boys state team titles, American Heritage-Delray shined in the individual doubles championships.
The duo of Geoff Kosseifi and Ajinkya Karnataki captured the state doubles crown over Barron Collier High (Naples) in a third-set tiebreaker. In that match, Kosseifi avenged his singles finals loss to Barron Collier’s Will Freshwater. The girls doubles team of Mehar Kaur and Nora Smucker won the state doubles title in a 6-1, 6-2 waltz.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Saint Andrew’s tennis teams win state titles in dramatic fashion
Reporting by Marc Berman, Special to The Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
