Terriers Win Crown

In recent years, John Brennan has had his girls and boys tennis teams practice together in the spring. The idea is to get the two squads better prepared for the postseason - the dominant girls for the Mayor’s Cup and the improving boys for the city playoffs. He never has them scrimmage, but usually the girls, who have won 116 straight matches, seven Mayor’s Cups, and nine Catholic State titles, are far superior.
Not this season.
“The boys would beat the girls,” Brennan said. “In past years, that wasn’t true.”
They also were better than any other Catholic team this spring. For the first time since 1996, St. Francis Prep can boast the best tennis - boys and girls - in the city. The Terriers blanked Iona Prep, 5-0, in the CHSAA ‘A’ final on Wednesday, May 23 at the National Tennis Center in Flushing to complete a perfect season at 15-0.
“It means a lot,” No. 1 singles Taylor Crabil said. “Seeing those girls win, we wanted it.”
Unlike the girls who can boast some of the top players in the northeast, the boys are very evenly balanced. On any given day, Brennan said, his sixth or seventh best player can beat Crabil. “We’re good at all the spots,” Crabil said. “It’s special. You don’t always find that.”
As proof, doubles dominated all year, not losing so much as a match, and rolled against the Gaels. Justin Miller and Petros Giorgiou breezed in first doubles, 6-1, 6-1, and Laurent October and Justin Perkins took a smooth 6-3, 6-2 decision in second doubles.
The team’s supposed weakness, though, had a fine afternoon as well. Crabil rebounded from a rough start for a three-set victory, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5, reeling off the final three games for the dramatic win. No. 2 singles Kevin Holze prevailed, too, in two tie breaker sets, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2).
For the Terriers’ lone seniors - Crabil and Justin Miller - the title served as a symbol for how far the program has come in four years. When they joined the team as freshman, the girls were in the midst of their unprecedented run of superiority, but the boys had not won a match in years. “It was a sad sight,” Miller said. “The other teams had such great players. We had good players, but not the talent.
“Taylor and I have been at [the program’s] worst and now to where it’s built itself way back up. It’s interesting to watch it grow.”
They were victorious twice as freshman, five times as sophomores, and then nearly won it all a season ago, losing 3-2 to Xaverian, a match that went down the third set in first doubles. Miller replayed that final set repeatedly over the off-season. “I was real disappointed with how I played,” the Jackson Heights resident recalled.
A year later, the Terriers left nothing to chance. With only October, a talented freshman, new to the team, there were no bumps in the road, least of all the finals.
Before the match, Brennan said this group deserved to win as much any he had ever coached in his 15 years at the Fresh Meadows school. Usually calm and reserved when his players are out there swatting groundstrokes, he was particularly on edge in the early going, watching every shot intently and saying it would be “close all the way.”
“They’re blue-collar players,” Brennan said. “They have to grind it out. … There’s a good and bad [side] to that - you have depth but you don’t have a sure thing at the top.”
Brennan knows about guarantees; his girls are usually assured of victory before they even set foot on the court. An undefeated season is familiar territory. But this flawless campaign holds a special place in his heart.
“That was as satisfying to me as about any one we’ve had,” he said. “There are not a lot of superstars on our team and I know how hard they practiced the last three or four months. … For them to win a city championship is just a major accomplishment.”