Eight very happy New Hampshire teens will be traveling to San Antonio, TX November 14 – 17 to compete at the National USTA Junior Team Tennis (JTT) U18 Intermediate tournament. Their team, “Longfellow CrocFever” includes Bohdan Higley and Taylor Suozzo of Bedford, Liam Grennon of Concord, Amy Ryherd of Hollis, Henry and Sigmund Winiecki of Jaffrey, Shu Grosso of Merrimack, and Grace Carpenter of Milford. Team coach is Nick Wagner of Longfellow New Hampshire Swim & Tennis Club in Nashua, assisted by Zach Suozzo of Bedford (student at UNH).

Having won the New Hampshire State U18 Intermediate title on Aug. 8, the team competed at the USTA JTT New England Sectional tournament on Aug. 14 – 15. The four girls and four boys spent two days playing five team matches at Amherst College. The five teams they played were the state winners of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont, plus a 2nd team from Connecticut that was a wild-card. For the uninitiated, a JTT team match consists of five player-matches: boys’ singles, girls’ singles, boys’ doubles, girls’ doubles, and mixed doubles. The winner of a team match is the team who takes the most games from the five player-matches.

They went into the New England Sectionals with high hopes but knowing that the five teams they were playing had some excellent players on them; they were going to have to work hard to win! They were also at a disadvantage with one of the four boys on the team having a shoulder injury which prevented him from playing. None-the-less, through two rain delays, heat and humidity, 17 set tie breakers and 11 match tie breakers, CrocFever WON the 18U Intermediate New England Sectionals with a total of 183 games won over the five team matches, earning them a spot at Nationals! They even won by a surprisingly comfortable margin of 29 games over the 2nd place team (from Massachusetts).

These eight teens are friends with many of the players on the New Hampshire 18U Advanced JTT Team which ALSO won New England Sectionals to advance to Nationals. That’s TWO 18U New Hampshire JTT teams going to Nationals – an incredible feat! Congratulations to them all!

submitted by Cindy Ryherd