The Radnor High School tennis program is decorated, producing strong players every year. Last year, seniors Josh Taylor and Will Frigerio qualified for state doubles, after defeating Conestoga and Lower Merion is the District 1 Class AAA doubles tournament, two of Radnor’s demons. This year, the team continues to build strong talent and have a bright future. The sky’s the limit for the 2017 Radnor tennis team, despite losing a wealth of talent in last year’s senior class.
This year, the Raiders started 2-0 defeating the Upper Darby Royals, and the Ridley Green Raiders, sweeping both matches 7-0. Radnor’s first true test would be an out of conference opponent, the Wissahickon Trojans, who’d they play a home match against on Friday, March 24th. This year, Radnor fields two freshman in their singles lineup. First singles, Max Safanov, second singles, senior Jonathan Davis, third singles,  Alex Weiss. Their doubles lineup feature Robert Frigerio and Patrick Farren, Luigi Giacomucci and Ethan Lee, Max Xie and George Hu, and Andrew Choi and Christopher Rhinehart.
The Raider’s match against the Trojan one was a back and forth affair. In first singles, Max Safanov ultimately could not best Wissahickon’s Andrew Tran, a dangerous rising talent in PA tennis. On the other end, 4th doubles quickly fell to their opponents too, and Wissahickon’s lead grew 2-0. Second doubles Giacomucci and Lee cleaned up their match, however, 6-2 and 6-0. Upper classmen Frigerio and Farren bounced back from a 1-6 loss in the first set, healthily winning the next two 6-3 and 6-1, respectively. With Alex Weiss closing his third singles match against Wissahickon’s Thomas O’Farrell, Radnor suddenly took the driver seat, bringing the match in their favor, 3-2. A loss for the Trojans looked all too real, especially with the last two matches having their first set go in favor of the Raiders.
The boys in blue would not be denied however, after overcoming a Raider’s match point, third doubles Anthony Lee and Jack Recine stole the second set to tie their match against George Hu and Max Xie, and ran away with it in the third, winning 6-2. The series tied 3-3, one match was not complete yet. Senior Jonathan Davis was battling David Weiss as well as illness, and after narrowly winning his first set, gave up the second in a heartbreaker. The cold, the fever, the intensity proved too much as Davis fell in his third set, 6-2, as the rest of the team watched as the game painfully fell from their grasp.
The trojans are a force in the tennis scene, and rival for the Raiders. While going 3-4 is no joke, Radnor strives to be the best. Perhaps many small details had to go the way of the boys in blue to net them a victory, but a win is a win, and more importantly, a loss is a loss. Radnor tennis will look to bounce back, but the job is easier said than done. They face Conestoga on their courts Tuesday, Haverford at home on Thursday, Downingtown East at home on Friday.
Wissahickon Teamroster