ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Lynnfield’s Sarah Mezini battled hard but lost in her match against Martha’s Vineyard in the Division 3 state semifinals on Monday afternoon.
By ANNE MARIE TOBIN
NEWTON — The Lynnfield girls tennis team came up short in its quest to play for a second state title in the last three years, losing for the second year in a row in the semifinals to defending state champion Martha’s Vineyard, 4-1, at Newton North High School.
With the win, Martha’s Vineyard will seek a second straight state title tomorrow at St. John’s Shrewsbury, where the Vineyarders will take on Central champion Hopedale, which punched its ticket to the final with a 4-1 win over West Belchertown.
Last year’s semifinal match between the Vineyard and Lynnfield was a real marathon, taking more that three-plus hours to complete before the Vineyarders prevailed in the deciding match in three sets at second singles.
This year, the Vineyarders left nothing to chance, needing only an hour and 25 minutes to deliver the knockout punch.
Leading 2-1 with only the first and third singles left on the court, the Vineyarders’ Camilla Prata secured the match-clinching point with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Pioneers senior captain Amanda Stelman at third singles.
Martha’s Vineyard came into the match riding a 41-match win streak, while Lynnfield had avenged its only loss of the regular season with a 3-2 win over Manchester-Essex in the Division 3 North finals last week.
Any hopes of a second shot at redemption were shot down early. The first doubles team of senior captain Olivia Skelley and junior Camie Foley, never got it going, losing in straight sets to Lizzie Williamson and Victoria Scott, 2-6, 2-6 in a match that took only 40 minutes to complete.
Two minutes later, junior Katie Nevils lost at second singles 2-6, 1-6 to Kelly Klaren and suddenly, Martha’s Vineyard led 2-0.
Needing to run the table in the final three matches, senior Hayley Timmons and junior Katie Nugent, kept the Pioneers hopes alive with a solid 6-4, 6-3 win over Amadine Muniz and Nuun Eksivi at second doubles. Timmons/Nugent held a narrow 4-3 lead in the second set, but broke serve in the next game to serve for the match and a chance to secure the Pioneers first point. Leading 15-0, Nugent boomed a serve that Muniz played into the net. Two Vineyard winners knotted the score at 30 all, but a forehand winner by Nugent, then a well-placed volley by Timmons closed out the game, set and match to cut the deficit to 2-1 with only Stelman (down a set) and Sarah Mezini (up a set) matches still alive.
Stelman trailed 1-2, but Plata ran off the next five games to clinch the match.
Knowing the Pioneers had no chance to win the match, Mezini (6-4, 4-6) played out the disappointing day by losing her match to Kat Roberts in a super tiebreaker, 3-10.
“It’s always nice to play in a big match in a big arena, but while we obviously wanted to win, we lost to a very good, and, honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them against next year,” Lynnfield coach Craig Stone said. “We didn’t play our best by any means, but to win a state title you have to be able to win when you are not playing well.
“We wanted to go home with a win and move on to play for another state title, but the way the match shaped up, with having three matches down and down by two, that put a lot of pressure on us knowing there was no room for error as we had to win every one of the those three matches.”
Lynnfield, making its 34th straight tournament appearance, finished the season 19-2.
