Those Greenwich Cardinals did it again, and for the third straight time at that.
The Greenwich High School boys’ tennis team had quite the banner 2025 season which consisted of three three-peats, so to speak.
For the third consecutive year coach Ray Marschall’s Cardinals won the FCIAC Boys Tennis Tournament, the Class LL state championship, and finished with an undefeated 22-0 record.
Greenwich’s third straight great season and Darien also winning a state championship highlighted another very strong season for boys’ tennis in the FCIAC.
Darien gave the Cardinals a strong challenge in Greenwich’s 4-3 victory in the FCIAC tournament semifinals and then coach John DeFilippo’s Darien Blue Wave finished the season with a four-match winning streak culminating with a 4-3 victory over defending champion New Canaan in the 2025 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class L Boys Tennis Tournament final.
Greenwich ended this undefeated 22-0 season with a 5-2 victory over Fairfield Prep in the CIAC Class LL tourney final and will take a 66-match winning streak into its 2026 season.
Greenwich’s last loss was on June 4, 2022, when Staples defeated the Cardinals, 4-1, in the championship match of the CIAC Class LL state tournament.
The following two seasons those two perennial powers squared off again in the Class LL state finals. Greenwich won, 4-0, in 2023, and last year by a 4-1 margin.
This year Greenwich and Staples had another chapter of that rivalry in the FCIAC tournament championship match.
Greenwich won that great, competitive match, 4-2, as five of the six singles or doubles matches were three-set matches.
The Cardinals won the school’s 19th conference crown and pulled into a tie with New Canaan in sharing the FCIAC record of most team titles.
There were many FCIAC players who received postseason honors by being selected to one of the categories of an All-FCIAC team or a GameTimeCT All-State team.
Several of those players were phenomenal underclassmen who are likely destined to collect plenty more achievements and postseason accolades in the upcoming couple seasons.
New Canaan junior Jackson Mountford, now a two-time FCIAC Player of the Year, was one of the four players selected to both the 2025 All-FCIAC First Team Singles and the 2025 GameTimeCT All-State Boys Tennis First Team along with Trumbull senior Justin Ilie and sophomores Kai Collins of Darien and Rachit Jha of Westhill.
Mountford, who finished the season with a 20-1 record, made both the All-FCIAC First Team Singles and GameTimeCT All-State First Team for the second consecutive year.
He won five matches in the CIAC State Invitational and took his 20-0 record into the championship match against GameTimeCT Player of the Year Michael Lorenzetti, a junior from Notre Dame-West Haven, and Lorenzetti won that very competitive match by a 6-4, 7-6 margin.
GameTimeCT annually selects 36 singles or doubles players for all-state honors. There are 12 players selected to the All-State First Team, 12 more to the All-State Second Team, and another dozen are All-State Honorable Mention.
Ilie made the All-FCIAC First Team Singles for the second straight year and last year he was selected to the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
Last year Darien’s Collins was the only freshman picked to the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team and Westhill’s Jha was the only All-State Honorable Mention freshman.
Staples senior Noah Wolff and Trumbull junior Dean Jackson were the two other players who joined Mountford, Ilie, Collins and Jha on this year’s six-player All-FCIAC First Team Singles.
Wolff was one of three players who made the All-FCIAC First Team Singles for the second consecutive year along with Mountford and Ilie, and Wolff also made GameTimeCT All-State Second Team for the second straight year. Jackson also made this year’s All-State Second Team and last year he was All-FCIAC Second Team Singles.
Greenwich senior Alex Salib made the 2025 All-FCIAC Second Team Singles and was among the five conference players along with Mountford, Ilie, Collins and Jha on the 2025 GameTimeCT All-State First Team.
The other five All-FCIAC Second Team Singles selections were Greenwich’s Manuel Galli Specos, Darien’s Rithik Melwani, New Canaan’s Julian Doshi, Ridgefield’s Patrick Krasucki, and Stamford’s Jonah Lotstein. Galli Specos also made the All-State Second Team this year.
The three duos and six total players selected for the 2025 All-FCIAC First Team Doubles where Greenwich seniors Nicholas Frumin and Rohan Mittal, Darien’s Oscar Barton and Dallas White, and the Staples tandem of Lucas Ceballos-Cala and Brett Lambert which also earned All-State Honorable Mention.
Mittal was on the All-FCIAC First Team Doubles for the second straight year and this year he and his partner Frumin were two of the six conference players picked to the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
Ridgefield junior Nathaniel Campos was also on the 2025 GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
The six players on the 2025 All-FCIAC Second Team Doubles were Grady Campo and Graydon Sieghart of New Canaan, Shreyas Gorre and Mattie Guadarrama of Staples, and Wilton’s Zachary Coleman and Hans Greene.
There were some great matches in Greenwich’s 4-2 victory over Staples in the FCIAC tournament final as Greenwich’s four victories were all three-set matches.
Greenwich’s Saleb rallied back for a 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Wolff of Staples in the No. 1 singles match.
Another great match was the No. 1 doubles match involving four All-FCIAC First Team Doubles selections. Greenwich’s Mittal and Frumin prevailed by a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3 margin over Staples seniors Lampert and Ceballos-Cala.
Galli Spekos won the No. 2 singles match by a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 margin over Staples junior Alekos Vergakis. In the No. 3 singles match, Greenwich sophomore Owen Kwon defeated Staples freshman Sebastian Elizondo, 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-3.
Gorre and Guadarrama of Staples won the No. 2 doubles match over Pierre August and Will Neuenfeldt, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.
Kieran Anand and Henry Grossburg of Staples teamed up for a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Jake Orbanski and Ryan Stanton at No. 3 doubles.
Greenwich swept all three doubles matches and got singles victories from Elias Orrell and Kwon in its 5-2 victory over Fairfield Prep in the state Class LL final.
Mittal and Frumin at No. 1 doubles, the No. 2 doubles team of August and Neuenfeldt, and the Orbanowski-Stanton duo were the victorious doubles teams who helped secure Greenwich’s third straight state championship and undefeated season.
Darien’s 4-3 victory over defending champion New Canaan in the Class L state championship match was much more of a dramatic nailbiter.
The Blue Wave had a 3-2 deficit after a fifth match was completed and needed victories from a Melwani at No. 2 singles and the Barton-White doubles team in the last two matches to win the state title and those three players did precisely that to help the Blue Wave dethrone the Rams.