WVHS tennis season in review

It was winning season for the 2025 Warwick Valley High School boys tennis program - and not just record-wise.

The Wildcats were winners because of the positive ways in which they approached the sport and the team unity that they demonstrated this spring.

“The match that stands out the most to me when I think about a collective win where the match was close, exciting and required a variety of different players stepping forward was our match against Cornwall,’’ Warwick Valley head coach John Garcia said. “We won the match, 4-3, but not without some big performances out of our guys. Denis McAteer won the first singles match against Christopher Drake from Cornwall which was a matchup of two players ranked in the top six in OCIAA based on Universal Tennis Rankings. Victor Januario won the third singles match against Tyler Lane which was a matchup of two more OCIAA Tournament qualifiers. Isaac Liang won the fourth singles match against Nate Parsons, who at the time was undefeated in fourth Singles competition.

“The overall match came down to third doubles and Warwick and Cornwall were tied 3-3. Cornwall won the first set, Warwick’s third doubles team of Harrison Annucci and Zachary Polsky came back and won the second set in a tiebreak. The third set that had to be played as a 10 point super-tiebreaker went to Warwick to give us the win,” Garcia said.

He gave hearty praise to this year’s Wildcat team leaders.

“Our senior leadership came from Owen Durgin and Evan Grundfast,’’ Garcia added. “Owen competed at first doubles and Evan competed at second singles. Both of these guys have been in the program since they were in seventh grade. Owen started four years on the varsity level and Evan started for six years. Owen was a great leader by example. He was always one of the first athletes to arrive at practice. His attitude toward each match was always positive. Evan is one of the smartest athletes that I have had the pleasure of coaching. His knowledge of the game and his willingness to share what he knows with his teammates helped them to improve upon their own games either in strategy or technique. Owen and Evan were great leaders by example.”

He also praised freshman Denis McAteer as a vocal leader for the team.

“Denis played first singles for us and brings great energy into every match and practice. His relentless passion for the sport and excitement to be out on the courts competing was contagious for his teammates,’’ Garcia said.

He added that several student athletes on the roster continually improved in all aspects of the sport this past season.

“There are many names that I could say surprised me in a positive way this past season. Two returning guys that I felt demonstrated the greatest growth and continual growth would be sophomore Victor Januario and freshman Matthew Yioupis,” Garcia said. “Victor in his freshman season struggled. He wasn’t coming away with the wins that he wanted and he would at times find himself frustrated with his level of play. This past season was a completely different story. Victor led our team this year with 11 wins and qualified for both the OCIAA Singles Tournament and the Section XI Singles Tournament. His serve was bigger, his forehand had more power, his backhand had great consistency and his overall ability to strategize how he wanted points to go and execute them was greatly improved.”

“Matthew Yioupis was an athlete that showed tremendous improvement from his eighth grade year to this past freshman season. He put in a great amount of time and effort in the offseason and it showed when he arrived at tryouts. Matt is a very coachable athlete that is always accepting of advice and doing his best to utilize the tools that he has learned,’’ he said.

Warwick Valley tallied an overall record of 8-5 with four victories in League competition.

Garcia gave a hearty thank you to seniors Durgin, Graham Gaspari and Grundfast for their impact on the program.

“Unfortunately, we also will miss Tello Villarrubia Vallejo, who competed at first doubles this year with Owen,” he added. Vallejo, a foreign exchange student from Madrid, was an unexpected addition to the team.

“As for the other 20 student-athletes, they are expected to be returning to the program next year. We will be returning seven varsity starters and 13 from our J.V. team that went 10-1 this past season. Harrison Annucci and Zachary Polsky both just completed their second varsity season. Isaac Liang, Kayan Roepe, Matthew Yioupis, Rowan Roepe, Christopher Mangels and Logan Nagel all just completed their first varsity season as well,” Garcia said.