East Beats Lenape for South Jersey, Group 4 Tennis Title

This wasn't supposed to be their year.

With three seniors graduated and two-thirds of the singles lineup gone, no one would've dinged Cherry Hill East for taking a step back from its run to the South Jersey, Group 4 finals a year ago.

Instead, the Cougars found themselves a point away from a title Monday afternoon, with Gabrielle Zimmerman, a year removed from the JV squad, up a set on Lenape's Gabrielle Shvartsman and with a shot to win it all.

If the sophomore had any nerves, she didn't show it.

After Shvartsman battled back from being down 5-2 in the second set to make it 5-4, Zimmerman resumed her dominant form, lacing a hard serve on championship point that Shvartsman overhit by more than a foot on the return, giving East the 3-2 win and its second sectional title in three years and sending Zimmerman's teammates swarming on her.

“It means the whole world to me,” Zimmerman said of winning the title. “Facing these challenges, knowing I can pull through this...I'm so shocked, I can't even believe this happened.”

While it was East's second look at Lenape in the last week, it was a new experience for Zimmerman—Shvartsman had moved up to second singles for that first match because of an injury to teammate Cailyn Chow.

“I had no idea how this girl played,” Zimmerman said. “I did what it takes to win—I stayed focused, stayed in the game.”

East also got wins at second singles, where Rachel Pham, another player who moved up from JV to start this year, defeated Chow, 6-0, 6-0, and first doubles, where Kristina Klinisova and Lauren Romisher beat Serena Lam and Melissa Olt, 6-1, 6-3.

Check out photos from the championship match

But even losing efforts by Allyson Wolf and the second doubles team of Adel Boyarsky and Sarah Jang were noteworthy, coach Mary Jewett said, because of how the squad played up and down the lineup, both physically and mentally.

“They work really hard and they're very gutsy players,” she said of the team. “They're all so smart...that always gives us an edge.”

Jewett said mental edge and what she said is “a high emotional I.Q.” among all the players left her with no nerves, even with a sophomore in the title-clinching match.

“I had no doubt, because it's Gabby,” she said.

Jewett also had little doubt her team had a shot of making it back to the title match, despite the turnover throughout the lineup. While she went into the season thinking it might be a rebuilding year, it took literally a day before she changed her mind.

“The very first day of practice...I was watching them all hit, and I went, 'Oh, my—we've improved,'” Jewett said.

It was the physical improvements by players like Zimmerman and Pham that convinced her, Jewett said, knowing both the players' work ethic—practices grind out for hours during the season—and ability to listen and take coaching well would help the team take a shot at returning to the top of the section.

Now they'll face a different set of competition in the state semifinals, where Ridgewood, Millburn and West Windsor South have all qualified; East will get Ridgewood, which won the North Jersey, Section 1 title as a No. 3 seed, on Thursday morning at Mercer County Park, with the winner advancing to the Group 4 finals.

Jewett acknowledged it'll be a stiff task to get past any one of the other three sectional champions, but said the value of that competition for her players can't be underestimated.

“They can see what they can aspire to,” she said.