Kaiserslautern’s Jace Martin runs after a ball hit short by Vicenza’s Jacob McGovern during the boys singles final at the 2025 DODEA European tennis championships on Oct. 25, 2025, at the T2 Sports Health Club in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

WIESBADEN, Germany – Jace Martin was down two games to start the third and decisive set of Saturday’s boys singles final at the 2025 DODEA European tennis championships.

And the Kaiserslautern senior was about to lose his serve, potentially placing him into a huge hole. Vicenza’s Jacob McGovern had put Martin on his back heel, smelling blood.

McGovern charged the net and hit the ball one way and then the other, and back to the first side. Each time, Martin somehow returned the ball.

The Raider then lobbed over the Cougar, who couldn’t get the ball back to the other side. Martin staved off the break point.

“After my legs were gone. I look over, he’s lying on the floor; he’s tried,” Martin said. “I feel like that’s where I started to get a little bit of momentum going.”

A few plays later, Martin saved his serve and the match.

Martin rode the wave from that sequence, outlasting McGovern for a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 victory at the T2 Sports Health Club.

The Raider, winning his first European title after finishing runner-up in 2023 and fourth in 2024, didn’t seem surprised by the three-set thriller.

It wasn’t the first time he beat Vicenza’s top player at the event. In the 2023 semifinals, Martin pulled out a win over Sam Grady in a marathon match.

“There’s a track record of always going to a third set, which love or hate it, happened,” Martin said. “It feels good. Won it for the KMC area, for my team. Just happy.”

Despite coming out on the losing end, McGovern looked at Saturday’s final as a positive, especially considering he made it to a title match.

“It was really enjoyable to play a good opponent,” McGovern said.

Early on, the match looked lopsided, with Martin cruising to a first-set victory.

Yet McGovern flipped the entire match on its head in the second frame, dominating the Raider in nearly every facet. The Cougar won the first five games before Martin was able to avoid getting blanked.

“I knew that targeting his backhand was definitely his weakness, and I was able to exploit his weaknesses to take over the second set pretty easily,” McGovern said.

After Martin recovered early in the third set, the two players traded breaking the other’s serve until it was 3-3. Then, Martin managed to hold his to take a 4-3 lead.

Another break to make it 5-3 gave Martin a chance to clinch the title. McGovern jumped out to a 40-15 lead before Martin staved off five break points. In the end, the Raider once again pulled off the win on his serve to seal the overall victory.

“He is such a great player that it was always going to be down to the last few points in every game,” Martin said.

Vicenza’s Jacob McGovern hits the ball during the boys singles final against Kaiserslautern’s Jace Martin at the 2025 DODEA European tennis championships on Oct. 25, 2025, at the T2 Sports Health Club in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

In the doubles final, Riccardo Averni and Giovanni La Piana d’Orlandi added to Marymount’s storied tennis history by becoming the program’s first-ever back-to-back doubles champions with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Vicenza’s Michael Gillett and Erik Findlay.

A pair of singles players thrown together last fall, the Royals credited their coach, Marco Mascioli, for their success.

“We’re happy for coach Marco, who helped us and guided us through these two years that we’ve been partners,” Averni said.

“He helped us develop a team spirit in a way,” La Piana d’Orlandi said. “I think that’s very important, and that ultimately led us to win again.”

Averni and La Piana d’Orlandi had seen Gillet and Findlay, a duo who played together for the first time this campaign, on Friday, blanking them 8-0.

On Saturday, the Cougars showed they learned a thing to two from that match, keeping both players away from the net more often.

The strategy wasn’t enough to beat the Royals, though.

“I feel like this game, they did play better tactically speaking, but we ended up winning,” La Piana d’Orlandi said.

As seniors, Averni and La Piana d’Orlandi won’t be back to go for the three-peat, but the players said they were happy to accomplish what they did the past two seasons.

“It was the perfect ending,” Averni said.

Marymount’s Riccardo Averni hits the ball at the net during the boys doubles final against Vicenza’s Michael Gillett and Erik Findlay at the 2025 DODEA European tennis championships on Oct. 25, 2025, at the T2 Sports Health Club in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

Marymount’s Giovanni La Piana d’Orlandi serves during the boys doubles final with teammate Riccardo Averni against Vicenza’s Michael Gillett and Erik Findlay at the 2025 DODEA European tennis championships on Oct. 25, 2025, at the T2 Sports Health Club in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

Vicenza’s Michael Gillett reaches out to hit the ball during the boys doubles final with teammate Erik Findlay against Marymount’s Riccardo Averni and Giovanni La Piana d’Orlandi at the 2025 DODEA European tennis championships on Oct. 25, 2025, at the T2 Sports Health Club in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

Vicenza’s Erik Findlay serves during the boys doubles final with teammate Michael Gillett against Marymount’s Riccardo Averni and Giovanni La Piana d’Orlandi at the 2025 DODEA European tennis championships on Oct. 25, 2025, at the T2 Sports Health Club in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)