By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

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fter the Sutton boys tennis team put together a 15-3 regular season earning themselves a 12 seed in the Division 4 State Tournament last spring, the Sammies were able to sweep their first two opponents before falling in the Round of 8 to Hamilton-Wenham, the four seed. Having only lost North Graff, a doubles player from that team coach Dennis Stamos is looking for his team to continue on the same path this year.

“We’re always looking to take that next step,” Stamos said. “This year we’re hoping to win the Central Mass. Tournament where we lost to Bromfield in the Finals last year, a team that we beat during the regular season. We also want to get back to the States while improving on last year’s performance.”

Stamos went on to say that what goes on in the State Tournament all depends on how the seedings and brackets come together, but you take what you are given and go from there. Sutton would like to get past the Round of 8 and at least make it into the Final 4 this year.

Looking to lead Sutton to the promised land will be sophomore Nick Champigny, playing in the number one singles spot. Although, as a freshman Champigny was the Sammies’ number one singles player last year, he did have his ups and downs playing against the best players from each school. While he did struggle being young and inexperienced in the position, he did come through with some big matches for Sutton. Unfortunately, the sophomore is scheduled to miss a handful of the team’s first few games due to an illness.

Until Champigny returns to the tennis courts, the Sutton team will find themselves moving into unfamiliar places. Senior Charlie Marchand, the team’s number two singles player, will move up a notch to take the top spot for the Sammies.

“With Nick out, it shouldn’t be that big of a difference for Charlie to play number one singles,” the Sutton coach said. “He has the experience and doesn’t get rattled. Besides, he’s faced that type of competition on occasion last year so, not only does he have the reps under his belt, he also knows what is coming and he can handle it.”
Another senior, Andrew Nelson, looks to be holding down the number three singles spot and, according to Stamos, seems to have improved his game for the upcoming season.

 “He’s another experienced player and has looked really good so far this season,” Stamos said. “He’s taller and slimmer and is getting to the balls much quicker. There is much improvement to his game; it seems that he has cleaned up his inconsistencies.”

With Champigny missing the first few matches Nelson will also move up into the second singles position, however the vacancy he leaves at third singles has not been determined at the time of this writing.

“It will be a game time decision each match. It will depend on who is ready and who has played well and committed themselves,” the coach said. “It’s possible that it could be one of our doubles players, but who knows at this point.”

Much like the vacancy at the final singles position Stamos has an influx of players that he can move around to play both doubles positions. Sophomore Palmer Graff. Who played doubles with his older brother last season, looks to have the inside track to playing first doubles but he could be bumped down to the second doubles team depending on who happens to be playing well at the time.

Last year senior Tighe Rogan and junior Reeg Kassalty held onto the second doubles position and having played well together, Coach Stamos is inclined to start the duo there when the season opens up.

 “I feel that I at least need to start them together. Reeg has worked on his game this winter and the two are committed to one another on the court,” Stamos said. “It could put me in a difficult spot if I do need to break them up for the team’s sake, but at least for now they’ll play together.”

Hopefully by the time that Nick gets back, the team will return to its set lineup and have only one position available in the doubles somewhere. Sutton will have a lot of young individuals battling for that lone vacancy. According to Stamos, there are two seniors, a sophomore, two freshman and three eighth graders looking to grab that opening.

 “It’s wide open and all eight players are on the same level,” the Sutton coach said. “Challenge matches and how they work with another individual on the courts will be the underlying factor; doubles is a totally different game and you need to work well together with a teammate.”

In addition to the players being up for the challenge and making that jump to the next level Stamos is trying to get his team prepared to play top talent on its way to the State Tournament, but that may not be as easy as it sounds.

 “We try to schedule some tougher, high-ranked schools so that we’re ready for when the tournament rolls around,” he said. “However, a lot of teams don’t want to put us on their schedule because it does nothing to improve their rankings, so we’re at the mercy of the schools who want to play us.”

Despite the fact that Sutton can’t get those top ranked teams to walk onto the courts with them, the Sammies just need to go out and play their individual games throughout the season and take things as they come in the tournament. And as everyone knows, anything is possible at that point.