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New Canaan Boys Tennis Hands Westhill First Loss

NEW CANAAN, Conn. – A new rivalry may have been born on the tennis courts Monday afternoon.

The New Canaan High School boys tennis team survived a scare from an upstart Westhill squad that had surprised the league by starting 8-0. The match came down to a pair of three-set battles at the No. 1 and No. 5 singles, but New Canaan managed to grab a 5-2 victory.

Spencer Lambdin emerged as the unlikely hero, an alternate filling in at the No. 5 singles spot. He battled Westhill’s Nick Morelli to a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win, securing the match for the Rams.

“It was a cool experience for me being an alternate. Just to get the opportunity to get the win is a cool thing,” Lambdin said.

New Canaan swept the doubles behind a dominant showing by Patrick Newton and Jacob Reiss (6-1, 6-0) and a gritty win by Luke McDermott and Andrew Penchuck (6-3, 4-6, 6-2)

Westhill answered with wins in the No. 3 and 4 singles matches, knotting the day at two matches apiece. But Willie Burger made quick work of Danny Soifer (6-0, 6-0), setting the stage for Lambdin.

While Lambdin locked up the win, the most thrilling match of the day was a slugfest at the No. 1 singles spot between the team’s two top players. Nick Laub outlasted Westhill’s Brandon Pomerance 6-7 (7-1), 6-3, 6-3 in a nearly two-and-a-half hour battle.

Laub said he was impressed with how far the Westhill program has come. “It was a really fun match. [Brandon] played me really well,” Laub said. “They were tied for number one in the conference. It doesn’t matter what their schedule was – they were number one and we were two. So we knew it was going to be a tough match.”

New Canaan (11-1) travels to Trumbull on Wednesday for a 4 p.m. match.

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