Down big and playing poorly, Adam Bryant thought about a movie he had seen earlier in the day. Not some comedy or blockbuster, although it was a superhero movie, of sorts. Like everyone else at Concord High on Tuesday, Bryant saw the new documentary about his former principal – Mr. Connolly has ALS.
“Honestly, I thought of Mr. Connolly today,” said Bryant, the co-captain of the Concord boys’ tennis team. “I literally said to myself, he said at that video today to enjoy everything that life presents, and I wasn’t doing that, I was wicked down. So I was like, ‘Actually have fun, go rip the ball. Do this for Mr. Connolly, do this for your team.’ ”
Inspired by Gene Connolly’s fight with ALS and powered by relentless defense and a buggy-whip topspin forehand, Bryant turned a 6-2 deficit into an 8-6 win at No. 2 singles. It was a reflection of the entire match for the No. 6 Crimson Tide (11-4), which lost to Exeter in the regular season but turned the tables in Tuesday’s Division I quarterfinal by beating the No. 3 Blue Hawks, 5-4.
“They showed a lot of heart today and we worked on that all season long,” said Concord Coach Dave Page, who has now guided the Tide to six straight D-I semifinal appearances. “We’ve had a lot of tough matches against really good teams this year and they hadn’t been going our way, and I just told them to keep working hard, keep knocking on the door and one day it will open, and I think they did that today.”
Even though the score was similar to the regular-season meeting, a 5-4 win for Exeter (12-3) on May 12, and the lineups and matchups were the same, Tuesday’s details were very different. Four of the six singles matches went the other way and three of those went in Concord’s favor this time – Bryant’s 9-7 win over Tucker Guen, No. 1 Aidan Connor’s 8-5 win against Cam Maher and No. 4 Matt Chorlian’s 8-3 win against Blake Stevens.
When they met in the regular season, Exeter led 4-2 after singles, but Concord won a pair of doubles matches to make it 4-4 before the Blue Hawks won at first doubles to claim the win. On Tuesday, the Crimson Tide led 4-2 after singles, but Exeter won the first two doubles matches before Concord’s third doubles team of junior Kevin Neary and freshman Anders Norton pulled out a pressure-packed 8-6 win.
“You see 4-2 all of a sudden becoming 4-4, there’s a big crowd around the court, not many of them favoring us, and you’ve got a freshman out there,” Page said.
That freshman was definitely feeling it.
“It was very nerve-wracking,” Norton said, “and (the crowd) just multiplied it.”
With all the eyeballs on their court and the tension thick, the Concord team raised its game.
“In the latter stages of the match, Anders started to trust his groundstrokes again, and Kevin got a little more decisive and confident with his volleys,” Page said, “and I think that was the difference.”
It was definitely the difference in the 13th game as Concord broke Exeter’s Nick Morales to take a 7-6 lead. Norton served next, and with the game tied 30-30, Neary had a small chat with his partner.
“Coach wanted us to try Australian (a different doubles formation), so I asked Anders if he wanted to try that and he said, ‘Hell, no,’ ” Neary said. “So I said, ‘Okay, get your first serve in, we can do this.’ ”
Neary took care of the next two points with volley winners, and Norton banged in an unreturnable first serve to close out the match and send Concord into Thursday’s semifinal at No. 2 Derryfield (14-1) at 4 p.m.
“Four seniors in the top six, so it was on our shoulders to make sure it wasn’t a short last year for them,” Neary said.
One of those seniors is Connor, who lost to Maher, 8-2, when he faced Exeter’s No. 1 on May 12. Connor wasn’t prepared for Maher’s game that first time and in the middle of that match he broke his racket in frustration, “the only time I’ve ever broken a racket in my life,” Connor said.
He was more prepared for Maher on Tuesday, aggressively attacked the net early and built a 5-0 lead. But Maher fought back, clawing his way to 5-5. That’s when Connor held serve on a long deuce game, swinging the momentum back to his side as he rolled in the next two games for an 8-6 win.
“That 5-5 game that Aidan held after many, many deuces, I think that was really, really important, and he just trusted his attacking game to close it out,” Page said.
Chorlian lost to Exeter’s Blake, 8-6, in the regular season, and fell behind, 3-2, during Tuesday’s rematch on the No. 4 singles court. So Chorlian altered his tactics, bringing Blake into the net as often as he could, and the plan worked perfectly. The Concord senior won six straight games and was the first player of the court after claiming an 8-3 win.
“He was good at long rallies and ground strokes, so I tried to avoid those,” Chorlian said. “I brought him and volleyed with him, and that worked.”
Concord’s other win came from No. 5 Neary, who cruised to an 8-1 decision against Zach Butenas. Neary converted most of his overheads and put-away volleys, and his consistency from the baseline led to a load of errors from Butenas.
Exeter’s singles wins came from No. 3 Eric Schleicher (who claimed an 8-1 win over Sebastian Hart-Meyer, Concord’s fourth senior in the top six), and from No. 6 Morales (8-3 win over Ethan Crandlemire).
The Blue Hawks then showed their own heart in doubles as the No. 1 team of Maher and Guen beat Connor and Bryant, 8-6, and the No. 2 team Butenas and Schleicher downed Hart-Meyer and Chorlian, 8-4.
But it was the Tide that had the inspirational ending fit for a superhero movie … or a documentary about a beloved principal.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)
No. 4 Souhegan 8,
No. 5 Coe-Brown 1
Key players: Coe-Brown – Nate Griffiths (singles win, 8-5)
Highlights/key moments: The Bears season came to an end in the first round of the Division-II playoffs.
Coach’s quote: “Souhegan is a tough team. I was hoping for a better outcome, but I am proud of the way my boys played this season.” – Coe-Brown’s Sam Struthers
Records: Souhegan 12-3; Coe-Brown 11-4
No. 2 Portsmouth Christian 8,
No. 7 Inter-Lakes 1
Key players: Noah Sullivan (win at No. 1 singles), Jake Borsh (solid effort in No. 3 singles loss), Nate Sullivan (solid effort in No. 4 singles loss), Robin Chen (close loss, 8-6, at No. 5 singles)
Highlights/key moments: Sullivan capped a perfect 15-0 season in singles, losing four games all year. He advances to the state singles tournament.
Coach’s quote: “PCA has solid tennis players through the sixth position. They all play consistent points. PCA was too strong for the young Inter-Lakes team.” – I-L’s Bill West
Records: I-L 9-6; Portsmouth Christian 13-2
No. 4 Kearsarge 5, No. 5 Profile 4
Key players: Kearsarge – Parker Pitts (first-ever singles victory), Tyler Valovic (singles win), Tucker Valovic (singles win), Charlie O’Conner (singles win)
Highlights/key moments: The Valovic brothers scored a doubles win to secure the quarterfinal victory for the Cougars, who won four of the six singles matches.
Coach’s quote: “This win puts Kearsarge into the semifinals of the state tournament, matching last year’s performance, despite graduating four starting seniors last spring.” – Kearsarge’s Lynn Miller
Records: Kearsarge 12-4; Profile 10-5
No. 3 Bow 9, No. 6 Littleton 0
Key players: Bow – Brayden Binder (win at No. 1 singles, No. 1 doubles), Evan Alfano (win at No. 2 singles, No. 2 doubles), Caleb Olson (win at No. 3 singles, No. 1 doubles), Michael Mullen (win at No. 4 singles, No. 3 doubles), Dillon D’Allesandro (win at No. 5 singles, No. 2 doubles), Zach Mullen (win at No. 6 singles, No. 3 doubles)
Highlights/key moments: Bow swept its match with Littleton in the Division III quafterfinals. Mullen survived an 8-6 match in singles while the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams played to 8-6 wins.
Records: Bow 13-2; Littleton 10-4