DELMAR\u2014Glens Falls boys\u2019 tennis players Alex Johnson and Mason Russo played only a few matches together entering Thursday\u2019s Section 2 Class B team championship against Scotia, and with the teams even at 3-3, it was up to Johnson and Russo to secure a fifth-consecutive sectional title for the Black Bears.<\/p>\n
Johnson and Russo dropped a 3-6 decision in the first set but rallied to defeat Tartans duo Tomas Baumgarten and Stanley Davis 6-2 and 7-5 in the second and third sets to lift No. 2 Glens Falls over No. 1 Scotia, 4-3, at Bethlehem Central High School.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, it was extremely nerve-wracking because both teams were cheering for pretty much only our game and if we lost, that was it,\u201d Russo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really nerve-wracking with both teams cheering for us,\u201d Johnson added. \u201cI think being able to stay locked in and being focused on the game really helped us win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glens Falls (14-3) and Scotia (14-4) split a pair of matchups during the regular season. The Black Bears defeated the Tartans in the 2025 sectional championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, personally, I never thought five in a row would ever happen, five sectional titles in a row,\u201d Glens Falls coach Steve Zurlo said. \u201cI’ve been so blessed to have kids that just come out and they play hard for Glens Falls and they’re gritty kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it was kind of on our radar getting here again this year,\u201d Black Bears senior Julien Oswald said. \u201cWe would have never thought that we’d do five in a row, though. That was just the icing on the cake. It was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the No. 1 singles battle, Oswald defeated Lukas Baumgarten 7-5 in the first set before handily winning the second, 6-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little rocky of a start, but I think I persevered and really worked that second set to get up and close it out,\u201d Oswald said. \u201cI think, honestly, it was my mental game because a big part of tennis is in your head. You just have to have confidence in yourself and play your game and don’t overthink stuff and hit your shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tartans held a slim 3-2 lead with two matches remaining, but John Tallon defeated Cal Feinberg, 6-3, 7-6 in the No. 2 singles match to draw Glens Falls even before Russo and Johnson\u2019s clinching win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s really nice helping them get to five (titles),\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWinning with Mason as my doubles partner, it feels really good because me and him are pretty close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also winning for the Black Bears was No. 5 singles player Kieran Westfall, who defeated Emery D\u2019Aroy 6-1, 6-4. Posting wins for the Tartans were Andrew Boldyrev, who defeated Ronan Westfall 6-4, 6-4; Ben Montague, who defeated Adam Avery 6-3, 6-1; and the No. 1 doubles duo of Colden and Logan Shapiro, who swept past Brett Chambers and Zachary Moore 6-2, 7-6.<\/p>\n
Glens Falls moves on to Saturday\u2019s Section 2 individual tournament. Tallon and Oswald will team up in the doubles tournament at Shenendehowa High School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DELMAR\u2014Glens Falls boys\u2019 tennis players Alex Johnson and Mason Russo played only a few matches together entering Thursday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,86083,1215,296,726],"class_list":["post-193313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-hs-other-spring","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}