CAMBRIDGE – Not only did the Lexington girls tennis team win their second consecutive state tennis title, but the boys team also put the meaning of “clean sweep” to rest as well.
Lexington (25-0) finished off an improbable unblemished run to the finals with a 5-0 shutout over Division 1 juggernaut Brookline moments after the girls picked up their state title on the same duPont Tennis Courts on the campus of MIT.
The Warriors (23-1) were also unbeaten coming into the contest and were winners of three of the last four state titles, only losing to Acton-Boxboro in 2022 with no recorded winner in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joel McCandless was a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Deven Devaiah in No. 1 singles play, while Arindam Bagga made easy work of Peter Khudyakov, 6-3, 6-3. But it was No. 2 Rudr Malayya who held court in a 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 thriller over Dhevin Nahata to help Lexington capture their first state tennis title since 2014.
In doubles, Aahan Mehra and Rohan Reddy were victorious in a 7-5, 6-3 straight set win over Ravin Bhatia and Kiran Bhatia while Naveen Kothandaraman and Gavin Ohler sweated out a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 win over Owen Eskey and Jacob Kapusta to complete the startling five-match rout.
“Not expected, not at all. Expected 3-2 one way or the other, a dogfight. Our team had more seniors, maybe the experience pulled them through – couldn’t tell you – we knew some positions we had a chance of winning and others we had a chance of losing but to see the outcome that happened? I don’t know where that came from,” said Lexington head coach, Chris Pugalise. “(Malayya) is our only freshman and he was kind of a huge part of this. I knew (Malayya) was going to start but I couldn’t tell you where but he battled for his position.”
The rest of the starters were seniors this magical season for Pugalise and none more special than McCandless, who is headed to Rhode Island College in the fall to play for the Anchormen.
The Warriors had beaten the Minutemen in either the North Sectionals or the State bracket the past three tries and in fact, McCandless was playing for more than just himself in his match. The “Brookline problem” as Pugalise jokingly referred to the Warriors was a stickler for quite some time for McCandless and his family.
His sister, Kyra, already picked up her own state title belt with their victory moments before over Lincoln-Sudbury, but McCandless pointed to the family lineage, especially his brother Kyle, who is currently playing tennis at Cal Tech, as motivation to pull down the state chip.
“I was playing for a lot of people today. My father (Michael) and my grandfather (Victor Zue) came out on Father’s Day to watch me play. My brother, for several years and the hardest worker I’ve ever seen, didn’t get a shot at a state championship so I was playing for him to take one home,” said McCandless as his brother preceded him and the only year they would have crossed paths was erased in the pandemic season. “One of us has been on the team for the past seven years with one as the COVID year and would have been our cross-over year. So this is big for us and I truly feel this is a win for the both of us.”