Dover girls sweep individuals titles, earn 3rd straight Henlopen tennis crown

By Ben Heck Special to the Delaware State News
Posted 5/15/21

CAMDEN — Evie Snyder wasn’t expecting to win.

If there had been a season last spring, she probably wouldn’t have even been a singles player.

But on Saturday the Dover High …

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Dover girls sweep individuals titles, earn 3rd straight Henlopen tennis crown

Posted

CAMDEN — Evie Snyder wasn’t expecting to win.

If there had been a season last spring, she probably wouldn’t have even been a singles player.

But on Saturday the Dover High sophomore, in her first season playing for the high school team after last year’s schedule was wiped out due to the coronavirus outbreak, captured the third-singles individual title at Henlopen Conference tennis championships at Caesar Rodney High.

“She’s had quite a past 15 months,” said Dover coach Kevin Papen. “She, I think, would have been second doubles (last year) and now she’s third singles and has been playing very well. It’s kind of one of those matches where you know you can count on her, so that’s nice to have.”

Snyder’s title was one of five for the Senators as they swept all five courts to capture the program’s third Henlopen tourney team title.

At Polytech, Caesar Rodney’s boys took titles on four of five courts to earn the program’s 22nd Henlopen tournament team crown — and it’s 19th since 2000.

Snyder’s success on Saturday came after she put in a lot of working learning how to play the game. She said last summer she played 78 days straight, participated in some tournaments recently and received a bunch of lessons.

Now, she’s a conference champion as a sophomore after the 6-4 6-0 finals win.

“It’s really exciting,” Snyder said. “I was really nervous and I wasn’t expecting to win … I knew that I had to keep a strong mindset, otherwise I would crash and probably lose, and I knew I had to stay aggressive … The thing that has made me better is just playing consistently.”

Dover recorded 30 team points, while host Caesar Rodney grabbed second place with 20 points and Cape Henlopen High scored 13 for third place.

Dover posted the program’s second consecutive perfect season with an 11-0 regular-season mark. All 11 matches were 5-0 sweeps.

“It was great, they all came ready to play today,” said Papen, who was named the girls’ Henlopen Coach of the Year. “They were itchy — itchy is a good word for it — to get back out there after last year and to get to play again this year, so it was great.”

Erika Synoski made quick work in the first singles final, winning her match 6-0 6-0 with her fellow Dover teammates soon following suit. The win marks the senior’s third Henlopen crown as she captured the title in first singles as a sophomore in 2019 and in second singles as a freshman in 2018.

“It feels awesome, I’m really proud of my whole team,” said Synoski. “It was really fun to watch them all out there and to see them all succeed and have fun while doing it.”

After dropping the first set in her finals match, junior Olivia Anyanwu came back to win consecutive sets and capture the second singles title with a 6-7 6-1 6-4 win.

It’s her second Henlopen title as she earned the conference championship in third singles as a freshman in 2019.

The Senators’ first-doubles team of Shing-Rue Lin and Terri Crawford nabbed the conference crown with a 6-1 6-3 finals score while the second-doubles team of Anna Canalichio and Malini Lodhavia grabbed the title with a 6-2 6-2 win.

“I was so excited to come back out here,” said Anyanwu. “It was weird not being able to play last year, so it felt weird but it’s amazing to be back and I’m just happy we could win it again.

“She’s a tough opponent, she always has been, so I just needed to focus and zone in and play my own game. That was the biggest thing and I pulled through.”

Caesar Rodney had five individual second-place finishes from senior Samantha Monjon (first singles), sophomore Erin Gross (second singles), sophomore Carolena Lord (third singles), first doubles team of freshman Allyson Lebendig and senior Natalie Rider and second doubles team of senior Neha Kumar and freshman Yatra Patel.

In the boys’ bracket, CR won the title under first-year coach Bruce McFall — although longtime coach Jim Harvey is still a volunteer assistant. McFall was named the boys’ Henlopen Coach of the Year.

The Riders totaled 28 points to finish ahead of second-place Sussex Academy (16) and third-place Indian River (15).

CR senior Jhayden Pappas won his first title at first singles with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Sussex Academy senior Michael Anghel.
At second singles, the Riders’ Darin Jawahar, a junior, posted a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Smyrna’s Phillip Hughes.

The only court where the CR didn’t win the title was at third singles, where Indian River’s Dane Shuart out-dueled the Riders’ Michael Sell to win 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

Both CR’s doubles teams won in straight sets in the finals. At first doubles, Ramon Manjon and Troy Boehne topped Sussex Academy’s Michael Daniello and Arpan Patel, 6-1, 6-0 while Caleb Anthony and Gilbert Hoffman downed IR’s Caleb Galbreath and Tristen Hood, 6-2, 6-3.

Sports editor Andy Walter contributed to this story.

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