LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield girls tennis team swept all five matches Friday afternoon, earning a 5-0 win over Cape Ann League opponent Pentucket on Senior Day at Lynnfield Middle School.
Prior to the match, the Pioneers honored their group of three seniors — captain Anna Radulski, captain Lauren Grava and Sarah Breslow — for their contributions to the program over the years.
Pioneers coach Craig Stone pointed out that all three players took different routes to get to where they are.
“Anna has been a key player for us since her freshman year, and if we didn’t miss her sophomore season due to COVID she would probably have some pretty impressive career numbers,” said Stone. “Lauren was a JV player as a freshman before getting called up to varsity at the end of the year, and since junior year she’s been a key doubles player. As for Sarah, she played on JV as a freshman and a junior and then she came back this year after really working on her game and she’s become a great doubles player for us. All of them took different paths to get here, and they’re all really important parts of the team.”
As far as the play on the court Friday, Paige Martino led things off with a 6-4, 6-1 win in first singles. Radulski followed that up with a 6-1, 6-0 win in second singles, while Genna Gioioso rounded out the singles victories for the Pioneers with a 6-1, 6-1 win.
In doubles play, the team of Grava and Maddie Sieve earned a 6-2, 6-4 win in the first match. The second match, played by the team of Breslow and Leticia Marafon, took a bit longer. After a number of back-and-forth battles, the Breslow-Marafon duo earned a 7-5, 7-5 win to complete the sweep for the Pioneers.
Lynnfield (12-3) will kick off a brutally tough stretch of three games in three days to close the season on Monday (3:30), when it hosts Manchester-Essex. The Pioneers will then play Newburyport Tuesday before closing the regular season with a non-conference bout against Marblehead Wednesday.
“It’s certainly not going to be easy, as we haven’t beaten Manchester-Essex in a couple years, Newburyport beat us 4-1 earlier this year and Marblehead is always one of the best teams in the Northeastern Conference,” said Stone. “But this is the kind of competition that you want to see heading into the tournament.”
