Friendly Competition in JMS Tennis

By Marcus Lonshein

June 25, 2024

On May 16th 2024, the Jericho Middle School Tennis Team played against Manhasset.

The final score was 6-6 in games and 7-0 in the tiebreaker. During the game, players Pranav Kumar and Richard Nie were the fourth team playing doubles out of five. Eventually, they lost their set in a series of close games going down to the wire and eventually lost during overtime. 

In the first set, Nie started with a strong serve and a few back and forths. Still, Manhasset scored the first points of the game, going up 30-0, a score also known in tennis as “love.” Before the game, Kumar noted that “The doubles game…will impact our season because if we do win this game, it will give us quite a head start in the season but even the smallest loss for our doubles team will impact Jericho’s Tennis Team as a whole.” 

Although they were down, Kumar and Nie tied the game 30-30 (also known as 30-all). The game ended with a score of 45 to 30, with Manhasset taking game 1. In tennis, a team must win six games in order to win a set, and teams need to win two out of three sets in order to win a match. Jericho then went on a three game losing streak going down 3-0. Jericho won the 4th game, starting their comeback, but Manhasset came back to win the next game, and Jericho won the 6th. By this time the score was 4-2 Manhasset, but Jericho surprised Manhasset in the next few games. 

The 7th game showed that both teams were getting tired, but Manhasset managed to pull it out, gaining a 5-2 game lead on Jericho. Manhasset’s serves started out great and got a few tough points on Jericho, but later in the game, they slowed down and became less effective. With the bad serves, Jericho gained an advantage, winning the next 3 games tying the set 5-5 in an incredible comeback. The only way for either team to win now was to win by 2 games and if the game tied 6-6, a tiebreaker would be involved. The next two games were intense but very quiet due to the players' focus and determination. Manhasset won going up 6-5, but Jericho fought back to send the set into a tiebreaker. With a few good serves and a few mishaps, Manhasset beat Jericho 7-0 in the tiebreaker, winning the set.

Nie noted, “I like tennis because I get to hang out with my friends and have fun.” Indeed, Kumar and Nie played their hearts out and left everything out on the court, even though the game still ended in Manhasset’s favor.