Algonquin girls tennis team wins second CMass. title in three years

Northborough/Southborough - The undefeated Algonquin Regional High School girls tennis team used balance and depth to defeat Marlborough High, 3-2, and claim its second Central Mass. Division 1 crown in three years.

The victory came on the Corash Courts at Worcester's Clark University June 6 and propelled the Tomahawks into the state semifinals, where they defeated Western Mass. champ Longmeadow, 4-1, June 9. The victory over Longmeadow allowed Algonquin to exact a measure of revenge against the team that dashed its state title hopes in 2006, and it also delivered the Tomahawks to the Division 1 state final, where they were scheduled to play the winner of the June 10 match between Acton-Boxborough and Needham, June 11 at Shrewsbury High.

Algonquin also defeated Marlborough in the regular season, also by a 3-2 score.

The key match in the Central Mass. final was at No. 2 singles, where Algonquin freshman Stephanie Hom battled back from a 1-4 deficit to Marlborough's Lais Pereira in the second set to capture the set, 6-4, which allowed her to win the match, 6-3, 6-4, which sealed the overall victory for Algonquin.

"The pivotal point was at No. 2 singles," Algonquin coach Jan McCurdy said, "Stephanie Hom coming back the way she did. She was down, 4-1, and worked her way back into the match. She didn't try to go from 1-4 to 4-4 on one point, or in one game. Anytime a player comes back like that, it's big. But to do that as a freshman, that gives people an idea of what a competitor she is."

The top-seeded Tomahawks' other two points in the match came in doubles. Algonquin's No. 1 doubles team of Britt Kelley and Haley Bourke beat the Panthers' top duo of Emily Koester and Anisha Gunderwar, 6-0, 6-1, at the same time the Tomahawks' No. 2 doubles team of Jennifer Pigott and Christina Hays was dispatching Marlborough's doubles duo of Jackie Cheung and Erina Sato, 6-3, 6-0.

"Our doubles teams were outstanding," McCurdy said. "They both won the last time we played Marlborough, too, but they really showed their stuff with their straight-set wins. The last time we played them it was close, too, so we knew it was going to be close again."

Marlborough earned its points at No. 1 and No. 3 singles.

At No. 1 singles, Panther freshman Marina Fileva, the recently-crowned Central Mass. individual singles champion, beat Algonquin's Mikaela Stamos, 6-2, 6-1.

At No. 3 singles, Marlborough's Dessie Stefanova beat Tomahawk Meghan Kassety. The players had split the first two sets, Stefanova winning the first, 6-4, Kassety winning the second, 7-5. Because the match had been decided, the duo played a tiebreaker to decide the winner of the match, and Stefanova won the tiebreaker, 13-11.

The loss in the Central Mass. Division 1 final to Algonquin did not diminish or tarnish the accomplishments and the season the Panthers recorded this year. Marlborough finished 16-6 and became the first No. 6 seed to advance to a final in a Central Mass. Division 1 tennis tournament, according to tournament director Bill Gibbons. In its journey to the final, Marlborough beat a pair of higher seeded teams - Tantasqua Regional and Westborough High.