Monday, July 14, 2025
Winning the Conference 2B title wasn’t easy for the Kennedy boys’ tennis team as it needed to beat two other contenders late in the season in order to reclaim its throne. And the Cougars did it by the slimmest of margins thanks to some late heroics.
Kennedy beat Hewlett and Baldwin by identical 4-3 scores in a span of five days and finished the regular season 13-1 to capture its second 2B title in three years while denying Baldwin a third straight title. The Bruins, who dealt the Cougars their only loss by the same score April 10, won the Conference B1 championship last spring after finishing first in Conference 4 the season before.
“Most of these kids were on varsity when I was the JV coach, so I didn’t really know what to expect and I didn’t really know the competition,” first-year Kennedy coach Brian DeGaetano said. “But I knew that we had kids that could play and we had a lot of depth. The depth of our team really helped us.”
The Cougars were 10-1 entering their encounter with third-place Hewlett on May 7. Kennedy trailed 3-2 heading into the final two matches, but the third doubles team of Nathan and Alex Domb rallied to win 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) and sophomore Nico Vergara survived his three-set matchup in third singles to complete the comeback.
“[Nico] was the last man standing and we needed him to win, but the real heroes that day were out third doubles,” DeGaetano said.
That left Baldwin as the only team standing between Kennedy and the title as the team met again on May 12, and the Cougars caught a huge break. Instead of competing against the Bruins’ then-undefeated second singles star in Brandon Firth, Kennedy junior Dan Heaney faced Steven Rivera, who had not started a singles match all year. The result was a 6-0, 6-1 victory for Heaney that proved to be the difference in the match and conference.
Firth, who was unable to attend the match, beat Heaney 6-0, 6-1 in the first meeting.
Kennedy beat Oceanside in the regular-season finale on May 13, but lost to Great Neck North in the first round of the playoffs May 15.
Vergara showed plenty of moxie in finishing 12-2 during the regular season and won all five of his matches that went the distance, including three in which he lost the first set.
“Nico, our team MVP, he got better as the season went along,” DeGaetano said. “He got better every match and he hates to lose. He plays hard every point.”
The second doubles team of seventh grader Noah Winiarsky and eighth grader Dylan Stone and the Dombs both finished a perfect 14-0. Winiarsky and Stone were especially dominant with just one loss in 29 sets, including five shutouts.
Sophomore David Krass (first singles) and Heaney were both 8-6 and Heaney recorded the lone playoff win.
The first doubles team of seniors Matt Stone and Dylan Laby went 6-2 and sophomore Kellan Auyeung (8-2), junior David Gurewich (8-4), and senior Felix Rapoport (6-3) were effective fourth doubles competitors.
