The Revere High boys tennis team needed a win over Winthrop in its final match of the season Friday to keep alive its hopes of qualifying for the post season state tournament.
Winthrop had defeated the Patriots by a 3-2 margin in their initial encounter earlier in the season, but a victory would assure the Pats of a tie for second place in the South Division of the Northeastern Conference with both Winthrop and Salem.
Under the MIAA’s guidelines, teams that finish in second place in a six team league may be awarded a tourney berth.
However, as of press time yesterday afternoon (Tuesday), it was unclear whether the MIAA would extend an invitation to Revere, Salem, and Winthrop to join the tourney inasmuch as there are three of them and typically there is only one runner up that gets the tourney bid.
Malak Mossadek set the tone for the Winthrop match with a 6-4, 6-0 win at first singles over a Winthrop player who had beaten him in their first encounter. Mladen Pepic made it 2-0 in favor of Revere with a victory in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, at second singles.
Nick Mucci made it a sweep of the singles matches with a 6-1, 6-0 triumph over his Winthrop counterpart.
The first doubles duo of Joseph Tran and Pariwat Chaiwong pulled out a tough three set match, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, while the second doubles tandem of Nick Tran and Soun Lee fell by a score of 6-2, 6-4.
Two days earlier, Salem turned the tables on Revere in similar fashion to what Revere did to Winthrop.
The Pats had topped the Witches 3-2 in their initial meeting this season, but fell by a 4-1 score the second time around. Mossadek at first singles was the lone Revere winner.
Malak had missed matches earlier in the week against Danvers and Marblehead because of a sprained ankle, forcing RHS head coach Mike Flynn to juggle his lineup.
Thus Tuesday’s match with Marblehead saw sophomore Doung Nguyen take a turn at third singles, while Monday’s tilt with Danvers saw Joseph Tran move from his usual first doubles slot to second singles and Brian Monroy team up with Chaiwong at second doubles.
