We're hoping these matches give our guys a chance to rise to the occasion and see what they're capable of doing. Whatever teams we play against should provide good competition.

Sterling has a good, deep team. Their doubles were definitely competitive. We have a predominantly senior team. They just came back the day before from their senior trip. That's not an excuse. They're still a little out of synch. We're still trying to find our rhythm.

For any player to reach 100 wins is special. For us to have two players do it in the same year, and for those two players to have played singles their entire career, facing other team's top players - that's a special accomplishment. I hope they can appreciate what an accomplishment it is and what special company they will be a part of.

I don't think it's weird. I think Ray and Jake handle that situation well. I think it was more important for Ray to win last year, because he had lost in the final the year before. I haven't heard him say a lot about it, but I'm sure he'd like to repeat. I think it's more important for him to play well and have the best season he can have overall. It's probably tougher to play against a friend, but it's something they have to do.

I'm always looking for the players to play at a high level. There's always things we can improve on. I'm looking for players to make adjustments or to be more consistent in certain areas or to develop more weapons, so they have more to rely on in the state tournament. I think the guys are playing better than they did a couple weeks ago. They play better, the more matches they have.

Realistically, we're not the favorite. I'd like to see us get as far as we can in the state tournament. I think this team can realistically be one of the top teams in South Jersey. We can definitely show improvement, show progress. Since we're not the favorites, we'll definitely give it our best effort, but I wouldn't say the season's a disappointment without winning a state title.