All eyes turned to a marathon, three-hour match at first singles to decide a match between two chief rivals on the opening day of the girls’ tennis season Wednesday afternoon.
Senior Alysha Wozniak snagged the clinching point for visiting Turners Falls High School, as she outlasted Greenfield High School junior Jenna Silk to lift the Powertown to a 3-2 victory in the Tri-County League North opener at the Davis Street Courts.
With the match tied 2-2, attention turned to the pair of top veteran singles performers. Wozniak captured the opening set before Silk evened things with a win in the second. But the Turners senior dug deep, eventually securing a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win that got her team off to a 1-0 start to 2017.
“It was a really competitive, back-and-forth match,” lauded Greenfield coach Ben Johnson of the battle.
Turners also received a singles victory in the No. 3 spot, where eighth-grader Amber Taylor was impressive in a 6-4, 6-1 win over Greenfield’s Leah Bosco.
The squad picked up its other victory at first doubles, where Kaili Lynch and Carlie Kretchmar teamed for a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Alyssa Garvin and Georgia Fowler of Greenfield.
The Wave (0-1, 0-1 TCL North) picked up a pair of straight-set victories for their two points on Wednesday. Sophomore Lilya Georgista was a 6-4, 6-1 winner in her second singles match against Turners’ Kortney Thurber, while the second doubles team of Katherine Fortin and Ngawang Tridytsang took care of business in a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Turners’ Isabella Farrick and Maria Labelle.
“For our first (match) out and only having about three practices outdoors, I was really impressed with how they handled the match situations,” Johnson said of his side.
Turners is off until Monday, when it travels to Belchertown High School for an independent match while Greenfield travels to Chicopee Comp on April 13.
Chicopee Comp 3, Mohawk 2 — Another marathon match decided things down in Chicopee, where Mohawk Trail Regional High School eighth-grader Emelia Seaver battled in a three-hour contest at third singles but was edged by Chicopee Comprehensive High School’s Anna Korman. The host Colts held serve at home with a tight 3-2 victory in the teams’ TCL North opener.
“It was an exciting match,” explained Mohawk coach Chris Seaver. “A lot of long rallies, 10- to 20-point rallies with a ton of deuce games. There was about an hour there where everyone was done playing and just watching them.”
After dropping the opening stanza, Emelia Seaver won a wild 7-5 second set to force a winner-take-all third. Korman held on, capturing a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win that broke a 2-2 deadlock.
The Warriors (0-1, 0-1) captured the top two singles matches, with junior Lilly Seaver setting the tone with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Comp’s Arriana Hasiuk in the No. 1 spot. Classmate Mary Monohan won an identical 6-2, 6-2 match at second singles over Aliza McLeish.
The doubles matches went decisively in Comp’s favor. Mohawk’s Eva Markham and Avery DuPree dropped a 6-0, 6-0 decision at No. 1 while Sienna Lewis and Hailey Sheridan also fell at No. 2 via 6-0, 6-0 scores.
Mohawk is slated to host Palmer High School in an independent match on Friday.
Athol 3, Belchertown 2 — After suffering a pair of 3-0 losses to start the season, Athol High School very much needed something to fall its way.
The Red Raiders changed their fortunes big-time Wednesday night.
On the road in a key early-season PVIAC East Division tilt, Athol broke into the win column for the first time. The visiting Raiders stormed to a convincing 25-22, 25-18, 25-19 victory over Belchertown High School, improving to 1-2 overall on the season and an even 1-1 in East action.
“We definitely cleaned things up,” said Athol head coach Sean MacDonald. “We switched around our setter and outside hitter and that made a big, big difference for us. We feel really good about it, hoping we can continue to keep it going.”
The Raiders moved Justin Blake from setter to an outside hitter slot, and the junior responded with a team-high 15 kills against Belchertown (1-2, 0-2). Junior Nick Casella stepped into a setting role along with freshman Colby Soltysik, and the duo combined for 31 assists.
In addition to Blake’s big night at outside hitter, senior Josh Herk also finished in double figures with 13 kills. Hudson Carlson added 5 kills while Dustin Aikey and Soltysik combined for 5 kills of their own. Soltysik added 3 aces to pace the Athol service attack.
“I really didn’t expect to sweep them, even after we won the first set,” admitted MacDonald. “But we just played really well. Very proud of the boys today.”
• Athol also captured the JV contest, holding off Belchertown via 25-13, 19-25, 15-9 scores.