GHS Boys Tennis Sinks Southington on Senior Night

GHS boys' tennis seniors (l-r) Matt Daniels, Josh Souder, Justin Nascimento, Nate Azimov, and Brendon Wagner celebrated Senior Night at the team beat Southington on May 18.

The boys’ tennis team continued to pile up victories, including a resounding victory over Southington during the team’s Senior Night on May 18. 
           
Prior to the match the team celebrated a handful of seniors—Josh Souder, Nate Azimov, Brendon Wagner, Justin Nascimento, and Matt Daniels—before taking six of seven matches from the visiting Knights.
           
Souder, Azimov, and Wagner are captaining a team that won 13 of 14 matches in the regular season.
           
Against Southington, all three captains chalked up victories as Souder won his No. 3 singles match (6-3, 6-0) and Azimov and Wagner teamed up to win the No. 2 doubles match (6-0, 6-3).
           
On Senior Night, the underclassmen made the seniors spirit boxes and gave them shirts to the respective colleges they will be attending.  
           
“It was nice to feel appreciated for the work that we’ve done for the program for the last few years,” said Souder, who will attend the University of Michigan next fall. 
           
Christian Kaverud (No. 1 singles) and Joseph Chan (No. 2 singles) each picked up individual wins, while the duos of Daniels / Niteesh Kalangi and Elliot Kim / Nick Bonaiuto each doubles wins. 
           
Souder and Azimov have been with the program since they were freshmen and—following a lost year to COVID—Wagner, Nascimento, and Daniels joined as juniors.
           
Souder said the team has become “super close” this year, adding, “Our coaches and the seniors have made it more team-oriented. Everyone is rooting for each other to win.”
           
The team has swept nine regular season meets this spring and have shown resiliency in close matches as well.  
           
During a recent visit to Hall High School on May 13, the team was without the services of Kaverud and needed to fill in the missing pieces to grind out the victory. 
           
The Guardians took the three doubles matches from the Warriors and Souder was able to rally for a singles win to preserve a 4-3 victory. 
           
After dropping the first set (2-6), Souder summoned his stamina from years of playing soccer to outlast Hall’s Jeremy Eisen on a hot afternoon. 
           
“I could tell my opponent was getting tired. Everyone was cheering me on so I used that as motivation to keep going,” recalled Souder, who took the second set (6-3) and the tiebreaker (10-6). 
           
On May 19, the team hosted Alumni Night, bringing back tennis stars from GHS-past. The now-seniors were able to play with and against the seniors who helped show them the ropes. 
           
Now in a leadership position, Souder and the other four seniors are mentoring a large group of freshmen that are playing major roles for the Guardians. 
           
Souder said the deep, diverse group has made each other better on the court. 
           
“It’s impressive that the starting lineups are really talented, but so is everyone on the bench. Our coaches have said before that sometimes the best matches you will be in are the ones during practice against your own teammates,” said Souder, who has played both individual and doubles matches this spring. “We are pushed super hard in practice. The freshmen that came in are really talented and the returning players are just pushing each other to keep their spots.”
           
Next up is the state tournaments with the Divisional tourney for team play starting this Friday, May 27 and the State Open for individual and doubles play starting Monday, June 6. 
           
​Heading into tourney play, the Guardians have the third-best winning percentage in Class LL and are only one of three teams (Enfield and Greenwich) with one loss.