By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI
MALDEN — The North Reading High boys’ tennis team was edged by host Malden, 3-2, on Monday afternoon. With that non-league defeat, the Hornets record fell to 9-7 as the Golden Tornadoes were able to get a split of the season series.
“They have a solid team,” said Hornets head coach Mark Bisognano. “They had three different players that were not there the first time we faced them.”
At first singles, Roman Ton lost, ,6-0, 6-1, Second-singles player, Parker Lee, won 6-0, 6-1.
Third-singles player, Sameer Murthy, won in three sets. He lost the first one, 6-4, but then won the next two, 6-0, 6-1.
In doubles action, the team of Jonathan Park and Aiden Patel lost in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreaker) while the second team of Alex DeWolfe and Raffi Toby lost, in three sets. The won the first one, 6-3, but then lost, 6-4, 6-3.
Last Friday May 19, the Hornets beat Ipswich, 4-1, at home to go to 5-6 in the Cape Ann League.
Ton won, 6-2, 6-4, while Lee won, 6-1, 6-2. Murthy also won in two sets, 6-0, 6-1. Park and Patel won in three sets. They lost, 6-1, in the first one but rebounded to win the next two sets, 7-5, 6-2. The second duo of DeWolfe and Ricky Ho lost, 6-3, 6-1.
“The first doubles team did a good job of digging out of that hole after the opening set,” said Bisognano.
The day before the Ipswich win, they beat guest Amesbury by that same 4-1 margin.
All three singles matches were won in straight sets as Ton won, 6-0, 6-0, Lee won, 6-2, 6-1, and Murthy won, 6-0, 6-1.
Park and Patel lost in three sets as they won, 6-4, in the opening set but then lost, by matching 6-4 scores the other two.
Toby and DeWolfe won, 6-2, 6-1, at second doubles.
The Hornets beat Lowell Catholic 5-0 on Tuesday and are now 10-7 overall.
The Hornets entered this week ranked 23rd in the MIAA power rankings. The top 32 teams at the end of the regular season automatically qualify for the state tournament.
The state tournament will start next week as the seedings will come out on May 27.
