Columbia High School’s boys tennis team has once again posted a winning season, with a 14-7 record and an NJSIAA sectionional championship.
In the sectional final against Westfield on Tuesday, Columbia won four of the five matches, sweeping both doubles competitions and taking two of three singles matches. On Thursday, they will face Livingston in the semi-fianls of the state championship tournament.
For the Cougars, who play in the state’s top division, this season been another addition to a string of winning seasons under Head Coach Steven Reichenstein, whose coaching philosophy is fun, food, and STATS, an acronym that stands for Sportsmanship, Teamwork, Attitude, Tactics and Strategy.
The Cougars have enjoyed four consecutive winning seasons, but have still faced adversity along the way, such as renovations to town tennis courts and losses in the sectional finals in both spring and fall of 2025.
Back row, from right: Riley Sayers, Max Krimershmoys, Rafael Romanowsky, Chaz Webber, Vaughn Lee, Oliver Grauman, Desmond Grainger, Mason Beaupierre, Simon Weber, Michael Ziegler, Kaly Rochette. Front row, from right: Assistant Coach Denard Cooper, Athletics Director Sjocquelyn Winstead, Ben Tooley, Hunter Geller, Head Coach Steven Reichenstein, Lucas Pietrycha (Photo by Noah Fontil) (Photo by Noah Fontil)
“We’ve responded to adversity the same way we respond to any match challenge: We play tennis. We reach out to the tennis community for support. We try new things. We figure it out. We let the court speak,” Reichenstein said.
“Winning is a process,” said Reichenstein “We play to have fun and we get better by playing. It’s all about having lots of good food and having as much fun as possible competing and hanging out with each other.”
Reichenstein said the teammates owe their success to their confidence, and believes that “the ingredients are all here.”
After dropping two of the first three games (each game is made up of 5 matches, 3 singles and 2 doubles, and to win a game, the team has to win the majority of matches), the Cougars bounced back with a dominant 5-game winning streak, dropping just two matches along the way. Prior to the sectional tourney game win, the team had won 6 of the last 11 games and 4 of the last 5. This included a sectional quarterfinal win against Piscataway, where they won all 5 matches to advance to the semi-finals.
Vaughn Lee with the team’s sectional group championship trophy (Photo by Noah Fontil)
The team has been led by Vaughn Lee (‘26), who plays 1st singles, and Riley Sayers (‘27) who plays 2nd singles. On the doubles end, the team has been anchored by 1st doubles pair Oliver Grauman (‘26) and Mason Beaupierre (‘27).
Grauman said they owe their success to their depth and confidence.
“One of Columbia’s strengths has always been the depth of our team,” Grauman said. “How tight we are as a team … gives our younger players an opportunity to grow alongside a strong and healthy squad and feel confident enough to bring us a win.”
For Grauman and Reichenstein, love of the game runs deep.
Grauman got into tennis through his parents, whose love of tennis made him naturally gravitate towards the sport. He loves that tennis allows him to have “complete control of my part of the game,” but also recognizes the responsibility and burden of that individuality. “All of the mistakes and bad plays fall onto me, and there’s nobody to go through the rough points with,” he said.
Reichsentein, on the other hand, got into tennis at a camp, through a tennis instructor who made the game fun in a way he had never experienced before. For him, it’s the competitiveness that draws him to the sport.
“If I blew one point, I could even up the score by winning the next point,” he said “I was never out until the match was over.”
Nelson Brinston is a 12th grade student at Columbia High School who is working with Village Green as a paid freelancer through a grant from the NJ Civic Information Consortium.
Senior co-captain and 1st singles player Vaughn Lee goes up for a serve recently. (Photo by Alex Nasberg-Abrams)
Senior co-captain and 3rd singles player Kalyan Rochette (Photo by Alex Nasberg-Abrams)
Senior co-captain and 2nd Doubles player Oliver Gruaman serves the ball as senior co-captain Kalyan Rochette readies for play. (Photo by Alex Nasberg-Abrams)
