Girls tennis run ends at state championship

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School girls tennis team, for the first time in six years, were on the doorstep of a state championship, but they came up just short in the finals on Sunday.

The Vineyarders fell to a tough Dover-Sherborn Raiders team on the hardtop of MIT’s duPont Tennis Courts, losing the first three of five games.

The doubles teams both went to tiebreakers, but the Raiders’ single players proved overpowering. From head coach Bill Rigali’s perspective, the difference between the Island team and the Raiders was just one rally. 

“Dover-Sherborn had another level of consistency from us,” he said. “And that’s the difference; you get the ball over the net one more time you make the point… they were one shot better than us and that was it.” 

Third singles fell first on Sunday. Senior captain Ellie Pennington fought against a strong Sarah Ewing for the Raiders, coming away with a final score of 1-6, 0-6. 

The Vineyarders needed first and second singles to pull through but they found just as much trouble. Charlotte Marchard on second singles was up 3-2 halfway through her first set but she ended up falling to the Raiders Mia Greibel 6-4, 6-0. And despite sophomore captain Laina Dubin being up 3-2, she fell in her first set to the Raiders Leah Hills, 3-6, then followed in her second set, losing 6-2, to solidify the loss for the girls. 

Second doubles Ella Moran and Clementine Zeender traded their first two sets with the Raiders Laura Green and Emma Motley, 0-6, 6-4 and were set to battle in a third, but the Vineyarders fell in a final score of 4-6. 

Leah Thomson and Zoe Treitman lost to Caroline Mahoney and Grace Makkas in set one 2-6, but battled back in the second to force a tie breaker, 7-6 but fell in the third set 1-6. 

Despite the loss, coach Rigali said the season overall was outstanding. After winning only seven matches last year, the girls came in strong with nineteen this year. Next season the goal is just to keep improving.

“Everybody’s style is different, we don’t have to play like Dover-Sherborn but whatever our style is we need to make it better — good enough to beat a Dover-Sherborn,” he said. “Our kids can look at the opponent we played today and see that’s how we gotta get it done.”