Published July 1, 2021
By DAN NUNN
MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — The NRHS girls’ tennis team’s season came to an end on June 21 when they dropped a close match to Manchester-Essex 3-2 on the road in a quarterfinal matchup.
“It was an incredible high school tennis match that came down to two points in a tiebreaker,” said NRHS head coach Matt Tiberii.
The match started out with Manchester-Essex winning first singles 6-0, 6-0 over Ava Czarnota.
The first doubles team of Soultana Tsaparlis and Lexi Licciardi also lost 6-3, 6-1, putting the local Hornets down 2-0 early.
North Reading’s second doubles team of sophomores Alyssa Bradley and Chloe Florez won 6-3, 6-4.
Third singles player Gina Campagna won 6-1, 6-4 to tie the match at 2-2.
It all came down to second singles who were still player after being the first ones on the court to start the match. All-League second singles player Elizabeth Grant “played her heart out,” according to Tiberii, but dropped a third set tiebreaker for a wild final score of 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).
“The match was that close and either team could have won but the No. 1 seed and the other Hornets came out on top,” said Tiberii.
Manchester-Essex won the D3 North title and the Div. 3 Eastern Mass title. They played for the state championship on Wednesday after press time.
