by Chris Jones ·
Friday, June 5, 2026
Senior Evan Burek rushes the net in his 6-1, 6-2 win May 28. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
The high school tennis playoffs have officially begun, and the Bromfield boys varsity (14-4) dispatched the Uxbridge Spartans 5-0 at home on Thursday, May 28, in what head coach Scott Hoffman said was the closest shutout he could remember. Perhaps this is what one should expect when Trojans and Spartans clash.
Senior captain Evan Burek, who is 11-5 on the season, set the tone early, defeating Brady Droeske 6-1, 6-2 at first singles. Burek relentlessly attacked the net behind a big serve and topspin forehand that proved to be too much for Droeske. “I felt great today … It was a ton of fun. My aggressive strategy is a tribute to Conall Muñoz who graduated last year. He’s a good friend and a net fiend, and I’ve adopted his style of play. It seemed to work against this guy,” Burek said.
With Burek off the court quickly, the crowd’s attention turned to seventh-grader Hakeem Tate, who is 13-3 on the season. The southpaw bested Uxbridge’s Dylan Kelly 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) using a slice serve into the body that frustrated Kelly on numerous occasions. “Hakeem hung in there and did what he needed to do. His opponent had very unorthodox strokes,” Hoffman said.
However, according to Hoffman, the match of the day belonged to second singles player and freshman Michael Mao, who found himself in a slugfest with sophomore Spartan Mathew Miller. Mao dropped a close first set 6-4 but rallied in the second and evened the sets at one apiece with a hard-earned 7-5 result. At this point Mao called timeout to speak with his coach; he had worn a substantial hole in his right sneaker so that he was more or less playing on his sock. Hoffman turned to his bench and the crowd for help. “It was like Cinderella. We kept trying sneakers to find a pair he could wear, and luckily, he was a size 10,” he said.
Ryan Donahoe, a Bromfield alum, who had come out to support his former team, produced the “glass slipper,” and Mao closed the final set 6-4. By then, first doubles had clinched the match, but Hoffman loved Mao’s grit: “I was really proud of him, especially the work he did off his backhand side … He had to work to beat this kid, and he kept him out there and made him hustle to the point where his opponent was cramping.”
The doubles teams, Donovan Smith and Otavio Medina, and Roman Muller-Juez and Ari Samsi, scratched out tough three-set victories and, according to Hoffman, showed “great heart.” Outside of Burek’s match, Bromfield had to dig deep for a team win.
Third singles Hakeem Tate returns a shot with intensity in his win over Uxbridge.
With the win, Bromfield traveled to Williamstown on Tuesday, June 2, to face No. 4 seed Mount Greylock (16-2) in a Division 4 round of 16 showdown. Despite a competitive effort, the Mounties swept the Trojans 5-0. First singles player Burek and second singles player Mao both lost in straight sets to two strong opponents, sophomore Tate Carothers and sophomore Oscar Heeringa. Meanwhile, Tate pushed Keeton Repetto to three sets but bowed in the third, 7-6, and the second doubles squad of Muller-Juez and Samsi also lost 7-6 in the third set. To round out the match, Mount Greylock’s second doubles team Walter Love and Nio McWieney defeated Smith and Medina 6-3, 6-4.
Coach Scott Hoffman felt the match could have gone either way: “The kids really fought hard, and we even had some match points with the doubles, but Greylock is a very good team.” So Bromfield boys varsity tennis finished the year with a 14-5 record and can say they were a Top-16 team in Division 4, a division of 55 schools. Hoffman believes the future is bright: “You have to remember that this team graduated four starters last year, so there were a lot of new faces in the lineup. If these guys focus on tennis in the offseason, they’re going to be tough to beat next year.”