LYNNFIELD — It’s safe to say: The Lynnfield and North Reading boys tennis teams know each other well.
While the No. 18 Hornets prevailed 3-2 twice during the regular season, the No. 15 Pioneers were looking to turn tables Wednesday in the opening round of the Div. 3 state tournament.
Unfortunately for Lynnfield, the Hornets made it three straight with a 3-2 win to bring an abrupt end to the Pioneers’ season.
“North Reading has our number for sure this year,” said Lynnfield coach Scott Gordon. “The matchup has been a challenge for us. North Reading is a solid team — especially at first and second singles — and their doubles teams are tough. Their strength is the same as ours and they just tilted the scales in their favor today. Bottom line is: You don’t underestimate any team in the Cape Ann League . . . but I’m proud of the boys and how they battled today. We’ve had a great season and I am proud of their effort all year. Today, it just didn’t work out the way we had hoped, but the kids certainly gave it their all, so they should be proud.”
The Hornets swept the three singles matches, while the Pioneers swept both doubles matches.
“To go from not beating them since 2014 to beating them three times in one year is big for us,” said North Reading coach Mark Bisognano. “Obviously, Lynnfield has had a great run of success and both of us have young teams this year. To be able to come up with three wins this season is huge. We have a little rivalry between the two towns and with young teams, I think we’re going to be battling like this for some time.”
North Reading’s Kellen Tiberii defeated Lynnfield freshman Shravan Sreeram at first singles, 6-1, 6-0.
“I’m proud of him, coming off an injury, even though he didn’t get the win today, ” junior captain Rowan Bayer said.
The Hornets’ Charlie Sarno made it 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-0 win against Bayer in the third singles match.
“My match was definitely close and the team made a great effort today,” Bayer said.
Junior captain Rishabh Anand and senior Andee Shieh, of Lynnfield, cut the deficit to 2-1 with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Nolan Pierce and Cole Verdonck at first doubles.
“They are definitely one of the better teams we’ve played, but we know their game now,” Anand said. “We just needed to stay calm because we knew we were the better team. We knew if we just played our game, we would not lose. Andee and I really meshed today and we played great.”
“Rishabh and Andee are a really hard doubles team to beat,” Gordon said. “They beat that team three times this year. They just didn’t lose many matches this year.”
The Hornets’ John Pastore clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-4 win at second singles over junior Brady Trippe.
In the longest match of the day, junior captain Ritvik Mahajan and junior Mahir Akhter gutted out a 6-4, 6-7 (12-10) super tie-breaker win at second doubles over Connor Abruzzese and Matt Lazure to account for the final Pioneer point of the season.
“Those two teams are extremely well-matched. Ritvik played really well at the net and Mahir’s serve-return game was really on, which gave them enough of an edge,” Gordon said. “They are so close in ability, which you could see today. Our guys had lost the first two times they played, so for them to pull that out in a third-set tie-breaker was a really good win for their confidence.”
“Every match we’ve played with them has been so close,” Mahajan said. “It feels so good to finally beat them. It kept going back and forth in the tie-breaker, so we just tried to keep moving forward, but I think it just came down to who made the fewer mistakes.”
North Reading advanced to the Round of 16 and take on the winner of Thursday’s match between No. 2 Wayland and No. 31 Amherst-Pelham Regional.
“It likely will be Wayland, unless something crazy happens,” Bisognano said. “Dual County League tennis is pretty good, so we know we have our work cut out for us. Nonetheless, we are happy to be moving on.”
