The Princeton High School boys tennis team hasn't lost many times this season. When it has lost, it took one heck of a team to accomplish that.
"We're 12-2 and the only two losses were to the second- and third-ranked teams in the state," Coach Sarah Hibbert said.
Princeton lost to West Windsor South earlier in the season. On Thursday, Princeton was defeated by Holmdel, 5-0, in a Central Jersey Group III semifinal match.
Find out what's happening in Princetonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"I don't know if it's fun to play the number two team in the state, but it's nice to get a challenge," Hibbert said. "It's nice to see how you match up against the best.
"We were more competitive than the score," she said. "Considering the opponent, we did as well as we could."
Find out what's happening in Princetonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
On Tuesday, Princeton opened the state tournament with a 3-2 win over Colts Neck.
"That was a good win for us," Hibbert said. "We didn't know a lot about them going into the match. Our guys stepped up and played well when it really mattered."
Eddie Percarpio defeated Charles Yang, 6-4, 6-3, at second singles. Julian Edgren defeated Kyle Spaulding, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) at third singles.
Princeton's other win came at first doubles. Jesse Chai and Akash Khanolkar defeated Sal Spinelli and Dominic Umbro, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).
Colts Neck's Dillon Sullivan defeated Robert Zhao, 6-0, 6-2, at first singles.
Colts Neck's Greg Duval and Chirag Jani defeated Kevin Qui and Eddie Zheng, 6-2, 7-5, at second singles.
"Considering we lost our first and second singles players from last year, the other players really stepped up to achieve the record we have so far," Hibbert said. "I will not say it was a full rebuilding year. When you lose your top two guys, however, there was some scrambling to replace them."
Princeton has four matches left in the season. It has to make-up matches against Steinert, Hightstown Hopewell and Lawrence.
"All of that rain really did a job on the schedule," Hibbert said. "We have a match Tuesday against Hightstown. We might also have a match on Monday against Steinert. That's still a maybe."
