Hunter Beats Beacon For Second Straight NYC “A” Title
For the second consecutive season, the title of the best boys’ team in New York City’s PSAL belongs to Hunter.
The Hawks captured the city’s “A” Division championship in thrilling fashion on Thursday afternoon at Queens College, edging Beacon 3-2, anchored by its doubles teams and a clutch win from Kyler Swiatocha at third singles.
“Coming into the preseason, it was amazing to meet this team, because they were a championship team that was still hungry,” said first-year head coach Jen Kim. “They came out in our early practices and really competed against one another for the top spots on the team, those were some of the most competitive round-robin matches I have seen from a high school team, and that really set the tone for us.”
Played across five courts inside the bubble at Queens College, the match was tightly-contested from the very first serve. Hunter struck first as Christopher Lee & Jeffrey Tsai notched a 6-1, 6-0 victory at second doubles, but the lead did not last long as Beacon would then take both the first and second singles flights. Erik Johansson posted a 6-1, 6-2 at first singles and Soren Rudin Aulenbach won 6-1, 6-1 at second singles.
With just two courts remaining, Hunter needed to lean back on its championship DNA in order to defend its title, and it did just that. After dropping the first set, the aforementioned Swiatocha responded with a 6-3 win in the second set which forced a deciding 10-point tiebreaker. Swiatocha raced out to a 9-4 lead in the ensuing breaker, only to see that lead evaporate, as he dropped five consecutive points to even things at 9-9.
But on the changeover, Swiatocha regathered himself, and proceeded to win the next two points with the majority of spectators and teammates watching, to clinch his match, and bring Hunter within one win of the city title.
Kyler Swiatocha won a key match at third singles to help lead Hunter to its second straight NYC “A” Division Championship
“It means everything. We’re all so close as a team. To have everyone there watching was a bit intimidating, but it also motivated me,” he explained. “I’ve been training so hard this year and it finally paid off. I hadn’t really come through lately in PSAL like I wanted to, so I’m happy that I was able to do so today in the biggest moment of the season.”
While the win wasn’t technically the clincher, it was crucial. The first doubles team of Weston White & Nikita Staniloe led 6-2, 5-4 when Swiatocha won his match, and literally moments after he won his match, Staniloe & White closed out their match 6-2, 6-4 to earn Hunter’s third victory and its second consecutive title.
“There weren’t really a lot of people watching our match, Kyler had the big one at the end,” said White. “But I was imagining those cheers from that court were also for us, and tried to use that energy on our court.”
Staniloe added:
“We were also watching Kyler’s match in between points and on changeovers, we knew how important that one was. I think we did a good job of staying calm though and focusing on just playing our game.”
The first doubles team of White & Staniloe symbolize the sort of commitment to team that was at the core of Hunter’s team this season, says Kim.
“I think there is a lot of personal sacrifice that goes into this team,” she explained. “For example, Nikita played third singles last year, but got bumped down to first doubles this year. I understood if he chose not to play, he’s a tournament player, but he stayed on and played doubles for us. That says a lot. Weston is a senior and has one of the biggest serves in all of PSAL, he competed for singles in the preseason but ended up playing doubles. Those are the things I love. The singles players often get the glory, but you need guys to fill all the roles in a lineup, and that’s what makes a championship team.”
