Prep boys tennis: Naples topples Venice for 3A regional title in tense battle to the end

Thirty minutes into the Class 3A boys tennis regional championship against Venice, things weren't looking so hot for host Naples High.

The Golden Eagles trailed in four of the five singles matches, including No. 2 Justin Braverman getting trounced 6-0 in the first set. But this Naples squad has shown time and again it's not about to quit when things go south, and Thursday afternoon was no exception.

Braverman dusted himself off and picked himself up, rallying for an 0-6, 7-5, 10-7 win -- one of an almost unthinkable four Naples victories decided by the third-set tiebreaker. Those tight victories propelled Naples to a 4-3 win over a shocked Venice squad, giving the Golden Eagles their first regional championship since 2009.

"I just kept on fighting," Braverman said about his impressive comeback. "I put the team on my back, because I really wanted us to go to states."

Also earning three-set singles wins were No. 1 Michael Moll and No. 5 Alex Richey-Klein. In Richey-Klein's case, he had to win both a second- and third-set tiebreaker to earn the 3-6, 7-6, 10-3 win.

"I looked over about 30 minutes into the match and pretty much everyone was down," Moll said. "But, everyone's a fighter. No one gave up, and three of the five of us came back and won our singles matches, giving us a 3-2 lead into doubles which was crucial because it's tough to come back from down 2-3."

The Golden Eagles certainly needed every one of those singles wins. The No. 2 Venice team of Jaden Wiesinger and Ryan Sherwood easily disposed of Naples' Mason Anderson and Garnel Guerrier, 6-2, 6-4.

That left just Moll and Braverman on the court, with the season and a trip to the state tournament, which begins Monday neare Orlando, hanging in the balance.

Like was the case in every Naples win Thursday, it wasn't easy. They dropped the first set 6-4, but the talented pair remained calm and dominated the second set 6-1 before engaging the Venice team of Benjamin and Ryan Rajakar in a close third-set tiebreaker. Naples went up 6-3 early in the tiebreaker, but Venice tied it at 8 apiece when the usually unflappable Moll double-faulted. Moll and Braverman dug deep, dominated the next two points and sent the Golden Eagles to state.

"We both train together almost every day, so we have very good chemistry," Moll said. "We were down 4-1 in the first set but we knew it wasn't over. We knew if we played our best, that was a winnable match and even though we lost the first set, we made it close (losing 6-4) and that gave us some momentum going into the second. We won the second set and had all the momentum going into the tiebreaker and we closed it out."

Naples coach Tony Kamen was proud of the way his team fought through adversity the entire match.

"We were down in every singles match, but to fight back like that, it shows the character and the grit that this team has," Kamen said. "It's unheard of that you'd win four 10-point tiebreakers to win a regional final. I've been doing this a long time, but that's definitely something special I'll remember the rest of my life coaching. That was awesome."