As the first two rounds of the CIAC Class LL Boys Tennis Tournament illustrates, Greenwich High School has picked up right where it left off in the FCIAC Tournament, an event in which it captured the championship.

The top-seeded Cardinals soared over their opening round and quarterfinal-round opponents and will now host fifth-seeded Darien in today’s 4 p.m. Class LL Tournament semifinals.

Following their 7-0 victory over No. 16 East Hartford in the state tournament’s opening round this past Saturday, the Cardinals swept past eighth-seeded Hall High School on yesterday (June 1), 7-0.

In the No. 1 singles match, Greenwich senior captain Elias Orrell was on top of his game in defeating Hall’s Adarsh Tolat, 6-1, 6-0.

“Going in, I recognized he’s a lefty and had a really strong serve and he got me on the serve a lot, so the strategy was to keep it to his backhand and wait for opportunities – try to get the first serve in and let him miss,” Orrell said of his quarterfinal-round win against his Hall opponent. “I just wanted to offset that lefty advantage.”

During the regular season on April 21, Greenwich edged the rival Blue Wave, 4-3. Therefore, today’s state semifinal-round matchup, should be tight.

“We are really looking forward to it,” Orrell said. “They’re a great team – especially No. 1 singles is really strong. We’re going to try to use our depth, which is how we beat them during the regular season. “

In the No. 2 singles match, junior captain Owen Kwon of the Cardinals was victorious over Eli Kramer, 6-1, 6-0. Kwon dictated the pace of the match and was aggressive throughout.

“I was really just trying to focus on playing one point at a time,” Kwon said. ‘I wanted to really lock down and value each point. I wanted to work on my game, first serves and coming to net and I succeeded in that and played really well, so I’m happy with my performance.”

The Cardinals captured the FCIAC Tournament championship recently by earning a win over New Canaan in the final. Greenwich reached the FCIAC tourney’s championship match by defeating Staples, another rival, in the semifinals.

“We have a super young team, but people have stepped up throughout the season, so I’m really proud of the guys winning that FCIAC championship,” Kwon noted. “Now, we’re focused on states.”

Francesco Lindia, a sophomore, was a 6-0, 6-3 winner for GHS at third singles against Marco Leonidas. Lindia continued his exceptional season at No. 3 with another decisive straight set victory, while junior Zach Schwartz, a junior, won his match in impressive fashion at fourth singles, for the Cards, taking the first set, 6-1.

Doubles action saw Greenwich’s tandems compete in top form. Junior Jake Orbanowski and Ryan Stanton were perfect in their match against their Hall foes. The Cardinals duo were victorious, 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 1 doubles position.

“We had a good first serve percentage and we put a lot of volleys away,” Orbanowski said. “We didn’t mess around, we moved our feet well and overpowered the other team.”

As for playing Darien, one of the team’s biggest rivals, in today’s semifinals?

“We’re excited, we know we have a big match against Darien, which is going to be tough, especially since they changed their lineup up a little bit,” Orbanowski noted. “But everyone is confident and we have some momentum going for the team, so it should be good.”

Said Stanton: “We went three sets with Darien the last time, we are hoping to win again. The atmosphere is always great when we play Darien, so it should be exciting.”

Junior Will Neuenfeldt and sophomore Milo Russo kept their successful run going at second doubles for the Cardinals. The duo swept to a 6-2, 6-0 triumph against their Hall High School opponents at the second spot.

At third doubles, freshman Liam McGovern and sophomore Zach Roth were off the court pretty quickly on their way to posting a 6-0, 6-0 victory for GHS.

“We are focusing on being as aggressive as possible,” Roth said. “We were also focusing on playing smart tennis. I feel like we were placing it well and trying to come to the net as much as possible and just work on some aggressive tactics coming to the net.”

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Roth said of teaming up with McGovern. “I’ve had a lot of fun playing doubles with Liam. We started playing together later in the season, but we’ve been doing well together and I feel confident playing with him.”

The Greenwich-Darien winner plays the Amity-Fairfield Prep winner in tomorrow’s CIAC Class LL Tournament final.

“It’s definitely going to be a challenge, but I think we’re very well prepared and I think that we can definitely do very well,” McGovern said of playing Darien in the semifinals.

Here are some more scenes from Greenwich’s quarterfinal-round match vs. Hall.