BROOKLINE – With Brookline in command at the top, Lexington needed its lower matchups to step up.
Joshua Chen and the doubles team of Lucas Dai and Ryan Wade were happy to answer the challenge.
Chen, Dai and Wade gutted out three-set victories at No. 2 singles and doubles, respectively, to lead the No. 6 Minutemen to a 3-2 boys tennis victory over the No. 3 Warriors in the Division 1 quarterfinals Thursday at Waldstein Park.
Lexington (22-1) will play No. 2 Acton-Boxborough, a 4-1 winner over Winchester on Thursday, in the state semifinals.
“Just keep fighting, and I guess we wanted it more,” said Lexington coach Chris Pugliese. “Josh played unbelievable. He’s been doing it all year, and he deserves everything that’s coming to him.”
Chen had to battle back at No. 2 singles, dropping the first set to Winston Chan before taking control of the second. With Chan visibly hampered by leg cramps in the 90-degree temperatures, Chen set a pace in the second and third sets that Chan couldn’t match, securing Lexington’s victory with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win that had his teammates pouring onto the court in celebration.
“Josh doesn’t really get tired, he likes playing long points, and he’ll grind all day long,” Pugliese said. “He’ll never go away. He will make you play a thousand tennis balls.”
Dai and Wade nearly finished off Brookline’s Anish Shrivastava and Peter Khudyakov in the second set, leading 5-4 and 6-5, only to have the Warriors battle back to force and then win the tiebreaker. Brookline almost broke to start the third set, but Dai and Wade fought off the challenge, and took charge from there for a 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1 victory.
“I feel like we weren’t really active in the second set,” Dai said. “We had the energy, but we weren’t really using that energy. So in the third set, we really took that on. We pounced on the balls, and we took advantage of opportunities.”
It was Lexington’s second victory over Brookline (19-2) in three years, having swept the Warriors in the 2023 state championship. Daniel Lee kicked off the Minutemen victory with a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles over Michael Miao, a game day Warriors substitution.
Brookline’s points came from Deven Devaiah at No. 1 singles and Kiran and Ravin Bhatia at No. 2 singles. Devaiah defeated Arvind Rajarajan 6-1, 6-1, while the Bhatia twins defeated Sritan Devineni and Evan Saptari 6-2, 6-1.
All but one of Lexington’s starters Thursday are underclassmen, so this Final Four trip could signal years of continuing success. Chan was the only non-senior to start for the Warriors.
“Most of them started as freshmen and stayed up until seniors, and that shows a lot about the program,” Warriors coach Mike Mowatt said. “They all stepped up and played amazing, and I’m very proud of them.”
