It was a day not too many people will forget in Clarkston Boys Varsity Tennis when sophomore Alexis Haselwanter went against Farmington on Sept. 17.
Haselwanter didn’t lose a single point against Farmington’s Yaswanth Kamety and earned Golden Match accolades.
“A golden match is rare, even a golden set is rare,” said Coach Chas Claus. “I have been around this program since 1990 and I know of one golden set in that period. There is one golden match in the state this year but it is something that virtually never happens.”
Claus added he wasn’t suprised Haselwanter achieved it.
“He has played so well and so consistently,” he said. “If anyone was going to do it – it was going to be him. He had a fabulous season last year and didn’t do this. It was a fun, unique aspect of the day.”
Claus, a former Clarkston tennis player, texted a few former teammates and said they were excited for Haselwanter even though they had been away for 20 years.
“It is just a fascinating phenomenon,” he added. “It is an equivalent of a perfect game in baseball. Ian Stuart came close. He played 50 points and he lost one point in each set which is extraordinarily close.”
All the Wolves posted wins against Farmington during the match winning, 9-0.
For singles, Alex Matisse won, 6-0, 6-1; Matt Dahl, 6-0, 6-0; Ian Stuart, 6-0, 6-0; and Haselwanter, 6-0, 6-0.
“Our singles guys were really dominate,” Claus added. “The top six flight were pretty dominant. We swept them so it was a solid overall showing.?
For doubles, Joey and Johnny Whall won 6-1, 6-2; Brendan Greenlee and Mitch Rogowski, 6-0, 6-1; Dan Agnew and Eric Matynowski, 6-3, 7-6 (3); Andrew Gibson and Sean McNeil, 6-4, 7-5; Kaiden Kamp and Randy Toll, 6-1, 6-0.
“The match was great,” Claus added. “We played really strong. It was a strong performance from top to bottom. We had a few close matches and both of those we pulled out and played well in high pressure situations where we had them. They did a good job putting Farmington away.”
The Wolves also won their match against Stoney Creek last Thursday, 8-1.
For singles, Dahl beat Vlad Oltean, 6-1, 6-1; Stuart beat Guillaume Huber, 6-0, 6-3; Haselwanter beat Josh Li, 6-1, 6-2. Toll lost to Michael Amici, 6-0, 6-0.
For doubles, the Whall brothers defeated Shyam Sudheadra and Jacob Pugnaire, 2-6, 6-0, 6-2; Greenlee and Rogowski beat Ryan Marten and Zach Zajac, 6-3, 6-1; Agnew and Matynowski defeated Traton Warner and Diego Agoytia, 6-1, 6-0; Kamp and McNeil defeated Paul Seyferth and Alex Postlmayr, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3); and Gibson and Ray Coyle beat Sid Kundal and Nick Reink, 6-1, 6-3.
The boys followed it up with winning the Brandon Quad on Saturday, winning 23 of 24 possible points. Every player won a medal, even Randy Sunshine who stepped in for No. 4 Singles and finished in second place.
The boys lost Rochester Adams on Monday, 6-2 with Stuart and Haselwanter winning their matches. Their record is now 10-2-1 (4-0 OAA White).
The boys play Stoney Creek one more time in the OAA White league meet on Oct. 3.
The Wolves played Berkley on Tuesday and head to the Romeo Van Dyke Classic on Saturday.