It is difficult to fly under the radar when you are a reigning state sectional finalist.
That has been true this fall for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ tennis team, which concluded last year’s successful 15-4 campaign just one court short of its first NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 Tournament trophy since 2018.
Under the direction of head coach Evan Rosenberg, the Panthers finished with 13 more victories than they tallied in their previous season to accelerate their rebuild during his first season in charge.
Heading into this season, Bridgewater-Raritan vaulted up to the Skyland Conference Delaware Division: arguably New Jersey’s most difficult division, on top of having to navigate the NJSIAA’s condensed girls’ tennis schedule leading up to the fall season’s earliest state tournament cutoff date of Monday, September 22.
A tall task for a young roster consisting of six juniors and one sophomore, especially given that two of its doubles players from last season had to fill in holes for two of the Panthers’ previous three singles spots left by graduating seniors.
Even though it has faced adversity along the way, Bridgewater-Raritan has demonstrated it is up for the challenge.
Going back to the second day of the new school year, Bridgewater-Raritan was swept in each of its first four matches: each of them being within their unforgiving Skyland Conference Delaware Division. But these results do not tell the full story, specifically as two of these defeats were against New Jersey’s top-ranked girls’ tennis squad in Pingry School (9-0, 6-0), while the others were delivered by Ridge High School (4-4, 4-3) and Montgomery High School (5-1, 5-1): each team since earning a top-five seed in their respective state tournament bracket when brackets were released Thursday, September 25.
Sandwiched in between two more losses to another top-five seed: division rival Hillsborough High School (7-5, 3-4), was a one-court victory over division foe Bernards High School on September 16. Although this was Bridgewater-Raritan’s lone victory leading up to this past Monday’s cutoff date, given their overall strength of schedule, it proved to be huge for the Panthers’ postseason hopes that have since been fulfilled.
Especially given the improvements they demonstrated in their subsequent rematches with these same teams alone.
“I’ve been telling them all year that last year means nothing in any sport when it comes to the following year,” Rosenberg described the expectations heading into this season. “When you especially get moved up into what is definitely the best tennis division in all of New Jersey, we need to stay humble and not get complacent."
“We play every [division] team twice at the beginning and end of September, so it’s a pretty good barometer.”
On Wednesday evening, the Panthers were rewarded for their perseverance and further showcased their growth.
Two days after its return trip to the postseason was sealed, Bridgewater-Raritan (2-6, 2-6) won both doubles courts while sophomore Skye Cabatu did not drop a set in third singles at Bernards (1-8, 0-7), as the Panthers left Bernardsville Middle School with a 3-2 road victory on the Mountaineers’ tennis courts Wednesday, September 24, in Bernardsville.
“It’s definitely a big change,” explained of her shift from doubles as a freshman last year to singles this season by Cabatu, who was named Bridgewater-Raritan’s co-captain despite being its lone sophomore and youngest player.
“I’m really excited about it, and I’m working hard every day to try and get better.”
Junior Vivian Chao was also named co-captain this fall, and she also jumped up to singles after playing doubles all of last season.
But this was just one part of a very productive 2024-25 freshman year for Cabatu.
On top of being the Panthers’ lone varsity freshman starter on the girls’ tennis team last fall, in the spring, Cabatu collected a second varsity letter as a member of the girls’ lacrosse team. In fact, she netted 17 points as part of a spring season that saw a senior-heavy Panthers squad advance to the Somerset County Girls’ Lacrosse Tournament finals and state sectional tournament semifinals.
This past spring was coupled with a trip to the state sectional finals for the girls’ tennis team last fall, when Bridgewater-Raritan was edged at home by Westfield High School, 3-2, in the sectional championship match to finish as runner-up in the top-heavy North 2, Group 4 section.
But quickly trading a lacrosse stick for a tennis racquet has proven to be seamless for the Bridgewater-Raritan sophomore.
“Skye’s ability to transition from a completely different sport like tennis to lacrosse and then back to tennis, especially after playing in lacrosse tournaments all summer long across the East Coast, is just a testament to her commitment in trying to be the best at what she does,” praised Rosenberg of Cabatu’s well-roundedness as an athlete.
“She has also made noticeable improvements in tennis, even though it is probably not her first sport.”
A huge statement given she tallied 14 individual court victories in team tennis matches last fall alone as a freshman with doubles partner Rhia Evans: now a junior and first doubles partner with junior Aadhya Rakesh. Most importantly, Cabatu has taken a lot of valuable gameday experience and leadership traits that she learned on the tennis courts and lacrosse turf with her into her sophomore fall season.
“Hard work and work ethic are big things,” Cabatu went on to say of the most important qualities she has learned from the upperclassmen she surrounded herself with in 2024-25.
“I try to follow in their footsteps and be as good as them, because they were great leaders and were amazing.”
One year later, she was fittingly elected to lead the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ tennis team with Chao, and their growth in singles over the first month of school has been clear both in the record books and on the courts themselves.
Cabatu defeated Bernards sophomore Nylah Failey, 6-0, 6-0, but improved from a 6-2, 6-1 victory in the Panthers’ first matchup against the Mountaineers on September 16, when Bridgewater-Raritan won its first team match of the fall by an identical 3-2 result.
Although Chao was defeated in second singles on Wednesday evening by Bernards senior Claire Ren, 6-6 (5-7), 6-1, 10-3, she went the distance in a battle decided by 10-point tiebreak after falling in this same matchup by a score of 6-0, 6-2 just eight days earlier.
A testament to their improvements in needing to quickly cover more ground as singles players, but some of the many positive results Bridgewater-Raritan has produced as of recently, whether in triumph or defeat.
“Both of our captains were chosen for a variety of reasons, such as work ethic, commitment, leading by example, and their play on the court as well,” Rosenberg shared about Cabatu and Chao in their roles this fall.
In first doubles, Evans and Rakesh delivered a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Bernards sophomore Elizabeth Sugarmann and freshman Ella Johansson. In second doubles, juniors Mysha Jain and Sophia Liu tallied a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Bernards junior Saira Failey and freshman Georgia Bradford.
Junior Neha Ashok, who made the jump from third singles last year all the way up to first singles for Bridgewater-Raritan, was defeated by Bernards senior Elizabeth Chen, 6-3, 6-0. However, Ashok won one more game against Chen than she did in their September 16 matchup, when she fell by a result of 6-1, 6-1.
These game victories occurred in the first set alone, and all of this set the stage for another big event for Bridgewater-Raritan to close out the last full week of September.
On the morning of Friday, September 25, Bridgewater-Raritan competed in the Somerset County Tournament, which was contested at Pingry School in Basking Ridge and is arguably the most stacked county tournament in all of New Jersey. Although the Panthers did not bring home the crown, they performed even better against the tough opponents they had already played against at least once previously over the first few weeks of the school year.
Bridgewater-Raritan and Watchung Hills tied for seventh place, while Pingry won the Somerset County team title.
Not a bad way to then lead into the 2025 NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group 4, Tournament, which has Bridgewater-Raritan as the bracket’s No. 5 seed despite finishing No. 14 in Power Points amongst the section’s top 16 teams that ultimately qualified for the field.
Hard work truly pays off, in other words.
“Our girls that won did so more decisively, and our girls that might have lost both matches played better and got more games in both matches,” Rosenberg went on to say of the Panthers’ improvements in Wednesday’s match victory over Bernards. “You can lose control really quickly in a conference like this if it’s just about wins and losses. But when it’s about making improvements game after game, set after set, and match after match, you can see the results.”
“I think we’re in a really good spot here going forward into the [NJSIAA Tournament] next week.”
Actually, make that two weeks from now based on which teams are left in the field.
After making its bracket’s biggest jump from its Power Points standings spot to its final, actual seed due to its strength of schedule, fifth-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan (2-6) earned a first-round bye and will launch its state tournament run in the quarterfinal round at fourth-seeded Watchung Hills Regional High School (4-2) at 4 p.m. Tuesday, October 7, in Warren.
Talk about a confidence and momentum booster for the Panthers, who will now have 11 days following Friday morning’s Somerset County Tournament to prepare for their return trip to the state playoffs.
But while the road ahead may not be easy, Bridgewater-Raritan will therefore be ready to square off with any opponent on its schedule when it matters the most.
Next up for Bridgewater-Raritan (2-6, 2-6) is a rematch with Ridge (4-4, 4-3) at 4 p.m. Monday, September 29, at the Green Knoll Tennis Center, located across the street from the high school campus in Bridgewater. The Panthers will then travel to Montgomery (5-1, 5-1) for a rematch at 4 p.m. Wednesday, October 1, in Skillman.
Bridgewater-Raritan then awaits its state sectional quarterfinals showdown at Watchung Hills.
The winner of this matchup between the Panthers and Warriors will travel to top-seeded J.P. Stevens High School (6-2) on Thursday, October 9, in the semifinal round, while second-seeded and reigning sectional champion Westfield High School (7-4) is the highest-seeded team on the other side of the Panthers’ bracket.
“It helps us put our feet on the gas and focus on the game,” concluded Cabatu about what lies ahead for Bridgewater-Raritan.
“Even if you’re down 5-0, you just need to keep working hard, because the next thing you need is just one game to move forward.”