Martlets Defeat Rhinos

Playing Taft home or away is always a challenge regardless of players and settings, and credit to their Coach Dustin for bringing the energy in what was an awesome match overall. Doubles started solid with the #1 team of Parks Cuskley ‘25 and Liam Hibbard ‘27 going back and forth until Taft took it in a tiebreak. Co-captain Hugh Olson ‘25 and Alex Brown ‘27 played their best match of the year at #2! Coming down to #3, Finn Hocking ‘26 and Will Henry ‘26 hung in there as long as they could, then took their chances down 7-6 to win three straight games, take the set 9-7, and give us a 1-0 lead overall heading into singles. Will may have had an energy come down after doubles, and played an efficient and craft player at #6, while Cuskley also fell at #1 to a strong player on both sides. However, Hibbard and Brown were walls at #2 and #5 getting us two more points overall, while Olson came back down 2-5 in the first set to win it 7-5, and never looked back in the second. He even listened to his coach on how to build the comeback! Hocking ultimately fell in a superbreaker to a hard-hitting, fast player at #4, gladly the win had already been snagged by the senior. Despite his singles score, we’ll give the grit and grace award of the day to Will Henry, who played his best doubles of the year and maybe went a little crazy when his doubles match ended. Normally a young man of few words, it was good to see the energy shine a bit (though maybe censored for next time). The boys have a nice rest stretch but are busy next week hosting Kingswood-Oxford on Monday.

1. Parks Cuskley ‘25 - 6-4, 6-4 L

2. Liam Hibbard ‘27 - 6-3, 6-0 W

3. Hugh Olson ‘25 - 7-5, 6-2 W

4. Finn Hocking ‘26 - 4-6, 6-1, 10-4 L

5. Alex Brown ‘27 - 6-3, 6-2 W

6. Will Henry ‘26 - 6-1, 6-0 L

Doubles:

1. Parks Cuskley ‘25/Liam Hibbard ‘27 - 9-8(2) L

2. Hugh Olson ‘25/Alex Brown ‘27 - 8-3 W

3. Will Henry ‘26/Finn Hocking ‘26 - 9-7 W

4. Jack Pickett ‘26/Alexei Kocatas ‘25 - 8-2 W

5. Henry Flaton ‘25/Noah Maltby ‘28 - 8-3 W