Mount Greylock Boys Tennis Takes 3-2 Win from Pittsfield
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Mount Greylock boys tennis team Tuesday beat Pittsfield by the same 3-2 score the Mounties posted the first time the teams met this spring.
But not all 3-2 scores are created equal.
Inside this result was a much improved outing by Mounties freshman Ryan Keating at No. 2 singles.
Last month, the Generals’ Hunter Golin earned a 6-2, 6-3 win over Keating.
This time around, Keating fought off three match points down 3-5 in the third set before succumbing in a tie-break, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (6-4).
“He was down 5-2 in the first, so a real nice battle back,” Mount Greylock coach Blair Dils said. “Ryan gets down, but he gets competitive. That’s not the first time he’s come back being down big in a set. We just like the way he competes.
“He digs in. His style of play is he gets the ball back, so he tries to force his opponent to make a mistake.”
Golin earned the only point that Pittsfield won in a contested match on Tuesday. The short-handed Mounties forfeited away the third singles match.
At No. 1, Gabe Gerry defeated PIttsfield’s Andrew King, 6-4, 6-1.
As they did the first time around, the Mount Greylock doubles teams swept their matches.
Alton McIntosh and Troy Michalak survived a three-setter to beat Gary Zheng and Noah Krantz, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. At second doubles, Josh Rudin and Drew Scanlon beat Emmett Krantz and Cloey Parlapiano, 6-2, 6-2.
“I liked how [McIntosh and Michalak] played even though they split sets again with those guys,” Dils said. “They were more aggressive, so that was good to see.”
Gerry, meanwhile, overcame a sluggish start to earn a dominant win in the second set.
“I think it definitely took some time to get warmed up,” Gerry said. “I hadn’t played over the long weekend. And we had to get used to these [Williams College] courts because we’ve been at MCLA for a while.
“It took me some time to get my serve set up and get my strokes all good. But it came together nicely.”
Gerry said that having just six players this spring has added a little extra pressure to each match for the Mounties, but he isn’t complaining.
“Not having one more person who has the opportunity to earn a point just means the rest of us have to be on top of our games and stay focused throughout the match,” he said. “That’s tough, but it makes it a lot more fun, too.
“I’m definitely just so happy that we can have a season, because it looked for a while like we weren’t going to be able to. Now we can. Now we don’t even have to wear masks. It’s just a joy to be out.”