Pennant team poised to break drought

MACCABI Tennis Club’s top pennant team continued its winning streak at the weekend, defeating Hepner Indoor (Geelong) 3-7-42 to 0-1-17 in the Tennis Victoria quarter-finals.

The latest win moves the side one step closer to claiming its first pennant premiership in 11 years and the ultimate goal of playing grade one next year.

After going through the home-and-away season undefeated (14-0), the talented grade two team – comprised former state grade player of the year Paul Arber, former grade one player of the year Asaf Nagar, brothers Luke and Liam Goldberg (both currently inside the top 300 players in the country) and former NCAA College player Josh Katz –won its sectional final over Yarraville 4-0 two weeks ago, earning it the week off.

And the break proved just the tonic for the side, which will now contest the statewide semi-final of the Tennis Victoria pennant competition, the largest inter-club representative competition in the country.

Maccabi’s grade-11 section one team, captained by Adam Neddleman, also won its quarter-final at the weekend, defeating Caulfield Rec 4-8-61 to 0-1-26. It was sweet revenge for Maccabi, as Caulfield Rec had knocked the club’s other grade-11 team out of the finals two weeks ago.

Only four teams remain in each grade of the Tennis Victoria finals and there are no easy matches from here.

Should the grade two side win promotion, it would be competing at the highest level of any Maccabi/ Maccabi AJAX club in Victoria.

Maccabi’s grade two team plays Wantirna, while the grade 11 side plays Mayfield Park, with both games to take place on Saturday. For venue information got to: tennis.com.au/vic/

PAUL SILBERSCHER

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