The Goats on Their Mission to be the Greatest of All Time

Nerves were running high as the boys’ table tennis team, the Goats, took on the Bronx High School of Science in the City Championship semifinals. The matches are structured so that the first team to win three out of the five scheduled matches wins the semifinal and advances to the finals. The first player to win 11 points for four rounds wins the match.

Bronx Science won both the first and second singles matches, while Stuyvesant won first and second doubles matches. Thus, the third singles match was the tiebreaker. The third singles match featured sophomore Daniel Chow and Bronx Science sophomore Shivas Khera. Chow comfortably won the first game 11-7, but lost the second game 7-11. Chow narrowly managed to win the third round 13-11, but then easily won the fourth, sending Stuyvesant to the finals.

The Goats faced the Brooklyn Tech Engineers at the City Championship, which wound up playing out in an almost identical fashion to the semifinals. Brooklyn Tech won the first singles match in three rounds, and the second singles match in four. Stuyvesant once again won the first two doubles matches 3-2 and 3-1. However, Brooklyn Tech won the tie-breaking singles match 3-1, leading to their third consecutive division title. Stuyvesant went from its third place finish last season to second place this season, showing impressive improvement. The only team Stuyvesant lost to throughout the season was Brooklyn Tech, which makes for a compelling rivalry that is sure to keep the Goats motivated to practice ever harder. “Over the summer, many of our players took advantage of free time to train and a good portion of the team still goes to Flushing to practice on Fridays even after the season ended,” sophomore Cyrus Cursetjee said.

Along with Cursetjee, the team will be captained by juniors Nehemiah Yu and William Ding next season. The team will consist of many upperclassmen in the next two seasons, creating the perfect chance for Stuyvesant to begin its own winning streak.