St. Thomas boys tennis opens Division III tourney with quarterfinal win over Bishop Brady

NORTH HAMPTON - St. Thomas Aquinas High School boys tennis coach Adam Molda said the Saints have one goal to establish.

"To make St. Thomas the premiere tennis team on the Seacoast, that's what we would like to be known for in tennis," Molda said. "We have a good foundation here. We have four great seniors who have established a really great culture here. We have some really young, talented kids who are only going to get better. We think that we have something really good here that's going to be sustainable for a lot of years."

On Friday afternoon, No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas (13-2) took another step forward in establishing that goal with a 9-0 sweep of No. 6 Bishop Brady (8-6) in a Division III quarterfinal match at Dearborn Park.

"It was a great win, we played against a really tough team, and the conditions were really difficult," Molda said. "This team has really good grit about them. They fought through the conditions and they fought through some really tough matches. Up and down our lineup, we showed that we can compete no matter what the conditions are. I felt really good about today's match."

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St. Thomas visits No. 2 Kearsarge on Tuesday in a semifinal. Kearsarge (14-1) defeated the Saints, 5-4 and 7-2 in two regular-season matchups. Kearsage advanced with a 7-2 win over No. 7 Profile.

How to reverse the trend

The third time will have to be the charm for the Saints if they want a chance at reaching Thursday's state championship match at Memorial Field in Concord.

"We know we have the talent to beat any team on any day," Whiting said. "We've just got to live up to that potential. We're really looking to bring that title back to Dover."

St. Thomas last won the state title in 2019, and Coach Molda said the match with Kearsarge, state champions in 2021 and 2023, is going to be a battle.

"We're going to have to fight for every point, and we know that they're really good," Coach Molda said. "We have to be playing our best, but we also have to be ready to compete. Anything can happen in any given match; anybody can win and anybody can lose. So these kids just have to go out there and believe that they can win the match, but they have to fight through the adversity they're going to see that day."

Saints sweep both singles, doubles

Alex Molda (No. 1), Ryan Whiting (No. 2) and Jack Smith (No. 3) all won their respective singles matches, 8-0. Sam White (No. 4, 8-6), Johnny Kovacs (No. 5, 8-2) and David Visbeck (No. 6, 8-1) also won in singles for the Saints.

In doubles, Molda and Whiting won 8-1 at No. 1, Smith and White won 8-3 at No. 2 and Visbeck and Colby Flaim won 8-3 at No. 3.

"Today was obviously a big day for us," Whiting, a senior captain said. "We got the sweep, but really proud of the guys ... we've been working all season for this moment."

Alex Molda called Friday's win a 'huge accomplishment' for the team.

"And now we're back in the semifinals for the second straight year," he said. "It feels great. We're playing a team we lost to twice, but I know we've got the talent to beat them."

Alex Molda said due to the two losses, it gives the Saints even more motivation to go out and get the win, while Whiting said the team shares the same goal and that's to be better than last year.

"Every single player on this team has gotten better, and we're just really looking forward to the opportunity to show that as the season goes on," Whiting said. "This is the big moment, this is the big match. We're ready and we're going to do our best to win."

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: St. Thomas boys tennis sweeps Bishop Brady, advances to D3 semifinals