After being handed its first loss of the season to Dwight-Englewood, the Boys Tennis team responded with four straight wins and a county run for all five positions. The team was also able to clinch another league title, touting an undefeated record within league play. The loss to Dwight-Englewood is the only loss of the Panther’s season, as the team improve its record to 12-1.

Following the loss, Glen Rock reminded the state of their dominance with a 4-1 win over Rutherford, followed by shutout wins over Eastern Christian and New Milford. The Panthers then improved their winning streak to four, defeating Rutherford once again by a 4-1 score. Even though the loss was disappointing to the team, the players knew that it would be a difficult barrier to overcome.

“We don’t like to lose,” Jesse Weiss (‘16) said. “But you can’t be too upset when losing to a team like Dwight.”

Despite being shutout by one of the state’s best, Glen Rock still feels that they showed their best effort and put up a good fight and took the positives out of the experience, which they will use to prepare for future games.

“It was good to play such a good team,” Marino Aldaz (‘16) said. “We learned what it takes to play teams of a high level. It helps us in the long run to beat some of our direct rivals.”

Aldaz also feels that the loss will not affect the way in which the team prepares for any future games.

“We still approach each match the same way and try to play our best,” Aldaz said.

In addition to winning four straight and clinching a league title following the loss, Glen Rock also sent all five positions into counties with seeds four or higher. After the first two rounds, all Glen Rock players remained in the tournament, advancing to the semifinals. The players are using the county tournament as a way to not only capture a county title, but prepare for future matches as well.

“Counties is always a good challenge,” Aldaz said. “And having every position reach the semifinals shows that we have a lot of depth.”

The runs of all positions in the county tournament is impressive, however the team had no doubt that they had this much potential from the beginning of the season.

“We knew we were capable of doing that,” Weiss said. “But it hasn’t been done in a very long time.”

The counties, which were postponed from this past weekend to the weekend of May 13, will be an important day for the Glen Rock team, as it looks to advance as many positions as possible to the finals. Following the tournament, the team will play out their remaining regular season games, followed by the state tournament, in which Glen Rock made it to the finals last year before falling to Mountain Lakes. The team will have to face solid competition once again, but the team feels prepared for any future challenges.

“We are looking forward to the state tournament where we hope to be a one seed,” Aldaz said.