Fridrikh, Pieri add to A-B title haul

SHREWSBURY — The past few days have provided plenty of reasons to celebrate for the ActonBoxboro boys tennis team, which captured a Division 1 state team title on Thursday.

Yesterday, the Colonials’ doubles tandem of Leon Fridrikh and Alex Pieri added another trophy to school’s display case.

The pair of seniors defeated Algonquin’s Ryan Farhat and Christian Jorgensen by scores of 6-1 and 7-5 to win the state boys tennis championship at St. John’s.

“We’ve been in this place before,” A-B coach Kevin Curley said referring to Fridrikh and Pieri playing on the same courts where the Colonials took the team title 48 hours earlier. “But I think you can’t underestimate the value of experience.”

Fridrikh and Pieri also knocked off Wellesley’s team of Patrick Kley and Mike Ryan in the semifinals, 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the title match.

“This is one of the things that we’ve been fighting for,” Fridrikh said. “So this was just a nice way to cap off senior year.”

In the boys singles tournament, Westboro’s Sumukh Pathi capped a highly successful high school career in dramatic fashion while winning his third straight state individual title. The senior and two-time defending champ rallied from the verge of defeat to beat Dover-Sherborn’s Max Schuermann, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, in a marathon championship match.

After a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Longemeadow’s Jeff Mueller propelled Pathi into the final, few expected to see such as competitive final.

Colby-bound Pathi staved off match point for Schuermann multiple times, before winning four straight points to put the finishing touches on his comeback.

“Personally, obviously you can’t do better than this,” Pathi said. “I’m very proud of all four years. This was my last match, so definitely wanted to go off with the win. That’s what I did.”