No. 6 East Brunswick gets 'over the hump' to win Group 4 girls tennis title (PHOTOS)

It's been a season of "avenging" past missed championship opportunities for the East Brunswick girls tennis team.

It began earlier this week when the No. 6 ranked team in the NJ.com Top-20 rankings got past Marlboro during the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 4 final, and continued at Mercer County Community Park in the Group 4 final against Bergen Tech.

East Brunswick (14-1) took down the Knights, 4-1, to win its first state title since 2019 and complete another goal on its list of championship aspirations for the 2024 campaign.

"It feels awesome (winning a championship) and to see all of (the players) hard work this season pay off," head coach Cory Widmaier said. "I'm really proud of their accomplishments this season. They wanted to avenge their early exit last year and get over the hump and they did a great job doing that."

East Brunswick's three-headed monster at the three single positions and its No. 1 doubles team of Kellyanne Mossi and Kaitlin Wang all shined in the state championship victory.

No. 3 singles player Stacy Arkhipova rolled in straight sets 6-0, 6-0 over Bergen Tech's Nora Cullen to get East Brunswick on the board first.

Arkhipova, who was the Bears' No. 1 singles player last fall, has a 13-1 record in team matches at the No. 3 singles position this fall.

"I love playing third singles," Arkhipova said. "I think I perform much better in this position and it feels great to help us win a championship."

Sophomore Sophia Klots improved to 14-0 at No. 2 singles for East Brunswick by winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 against the Knights' Olivia Domski.

"It just feels really good to win for the team and help us win a championship," Klots said. "I just tried to play really aggressively and I think I did that and played well."

Freshman Anvita Shankar battled off Olivia Lai at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-3, to complete the sweep at all three singles spots for the Bears.

In doubles action, Mossi and Wang secured a win in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 against Katie Chung and Ashley Weiln.

Mossi and Wang were up 5-2 in the second set before Chung and Weiln rallied to cut it to 5-4.

East Brunswick's No. 1 duo didn't panic and battled back to win all four points in the last game to win the match and clinch the championship for the Bears.

"When you get towards the end of the match, you sometimes get a little too comfortable and a little impatient," Wang said. "You have to take each game point by point and that'll help you climb back up."

As a team, Mossi and Wang have lost only once this season (13-1) in dual matches.

Widmaier sees the pairing as vital pieces in making East Brunswick a complete team and now a championship squad.

"It sometimes depends on the doubles to finish the job and that's where we come in," Mossi said. "I think this whole season we've done a good job of becoming good double partners and stepping up for our team."

Bergen Tech won its lone match in the Group 4 final at No. 2 doubles with Chloe Chung and Emma Yoon defeating East Brunswick's Riya Joshi and Prisha Patel in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.

Bergen Tech (17-5) was playing in its first state final since 2016 under first-year coach Stephan Lastra.

"These girls have been great this year," Lastra said. "The comradery they have with one another really helped us on this postseason run."

This is East Brunswick's fourth state championship in program history. When the Bears won the Group 4 title five years ago, they went on to win the Tournament of Champions for the second time to complete their perfect 21-0 season.

Winning championships have been hard to come by since with East Brunswick coming up short in the sectional final three straight years.

This fall was different, however, with the Bears getting over the hump and bringing the Group 4 title back to East Brunswick.

"Since the first day of tryouts, these girls wanted to make up for last year's loss in the sectional finals," Widmaier said. "It was just the manner of them coming together and working as a team. How they came together and played as a team was amazing to watch."