Sunday, June 15, 2025
The Baldwin boys’ tennis team is on the verge of returning to the playoffs this year, but can it claim a third straight conference title as well?
The Bruins (9-1) entered their final week of action one half-game behind Kennedy (10-1) in the Conference II standings and the schools battled for the top spot on Tuesday. The match also kickstarted a stretch of four games in as many days for Baldwin as they close the season — weather permitting — with a trip to Oceanside before home meetings with Calhoun and South Side.
The top three teams in the conference qualify for the playoffs and fourth-place Valley Stream Central was 5-5 entering last Friday’s match with South Side. The Bruins would need to win just one of four remaining matches to clinch their second straight playoff appearance after not doing so since 1994.
Baldwin’s only loss of the season was on a cold April 9 day against Hewlett, but the Bruins exacted revenge on the third-place Bulldogs (7-2) with a thrilling 4-3 victory last Friday. Brandon Firth (second singles) and fellow junior Chad Iles (third singles) won in straight sets as did the first doubles team of senior Lucas Mokund and seventh grader Gavin Sorensen, but the Bruins needed the second-doubles team of senior Jordan Diouf and junior Lucas Duet to pull off a 7-2 tiebreaker in the deciding third set in the end to claim the victory.
“It was the most amazing tennis match that I’ve ever been involved in,” coach Jane Hayes said.
Baldwin has maintained its conference supremacy despite being in three different divisions in as many years. The Bruins captured the Conference IV title in 2023, but didn’t qualify for the playoffs that year, and then they repeated the feat in Conference III last spring.
“They have that competitive edge to win,” Hayes said. “They do play a lot of tennis outside of Baldwin. They play in different leagues down in Long Beach and other places, so they’re always challenging themselves [and] playing better players to get better.”
Firth is the only singles competitor not to lose either a set or a match this season and Iles’ only blemish came in the first Hewlett match while compiling an 18-2 mark in sets. First singles player Luke Lastique is 8-2 and has won 17 of 22 sets.
“He’s playing kids a little bit stronger this year,” Hayes said of Firth. “Brandon is very competitive, and he’s got a lot of heart, and he’s worked very hard at it.”
Despite the five-year grade difference, Mokund and Sorensen jelled quickly and are 9-1 this spring while dropping just two of 21 sets.
“It didn’t take a long time to put them together because they were just meant to be,” Hayes said. “They’re very respectful of each other and they are a true doubles team.”
Diouf and Duet have been hot of late by winning three of their last four matches. Sophomores Jude Das, Jayden Lopez, and Samuel Maurice and juniors Steven Rivera and Jerome Wallace Jr. are all gaining valuable experience in the bottom pairs.
