TMHS Golfers Qualify For State Tournament

Revenge doesn't get much sweeter than the kind the Tewksbury High golf team tasted Wednesday afternoon.

Not only did the Redmen avenge an earlier loss to Merrimack Valley Conference rival Dracut with a 12.5-7.5 win at but the win qualified Tewksbury for its third straight trip to the MIAA Divison 2 golf championships next month.

"This was a great win for our players and for our program," "Our goal has been met. But there are still several more on the table."

As has been the case in several other matches this year, Wednesday's match came down to the final group, where a pair of relatively inexperiened Redmen came up big. With the score tied at 7.5 each after the first three groups had finished, juniors Ryan Muise and Eric Hunter swept all five points in their match to give Tewksbury the win. Both Hunter and Muise are first-year varsity players for TMHS.

Muise won his match, 2 and 1, while Hunter cruised to a 5 and 4 win. The pair also took the best ball point, 5 and 4. For Hunter and Muise, it was a complete turnaround from the first Dracut match at Hickory Hill two weeks ago, in which the pair lost all five points in the final group and Dracut took the win.

"This was role reversal for us...compared to when we went over to Hickory Hill," Sullivan said. "We typically have a pretty strong back end and finishing group, and that is something that we hang our hats on. Today that bore out.

"We needed both Muise and Hunter to step up big time in order for us to win this match. Both players did just that," Sullivan added.

The match started out in much the same fashion as the first meeting between these two teams. took a 2 up win over Dracut's Dan Zabbo, while Dracut's Andrew Gys shot an impressive 38 to beat TMHS junior Mike Casey,  4 and 3. The teams split the best ball point and it was 2.5-2.5 after one group.

Tewksbury had seemingly taken charge of the match when juniors Derek Petti and Pat Doherty swept all five points in the second group. Both Doherty and Petti took 2 and 1 wins, and the pair won the best ball point, 3 and 1.

But things changed dramatically in the third pairing, as junior Sean Thomann lost 1 down and senior Pat Grinley lost 2  down. When Dracut took the best ball point, the match was tied at 7.5 apiece with one group left out on the course.

But that's when Hunter and Muise came up big.

"Our first match against this team really helped us gain experience for today's match," Sullivan said. "When we went over there we got into some of these same situations; even through six or seven holes, 1 up with two to play, or even 1 down with two to play. (In the first match) we weren't able to hold on to or come back. Today we were able to do that and handle that and pull those matches out and win."

The win puts Tewksbury's overall record at 5-2 and 4-1 overall in the MVC. With eight regular season matches remaining to be played, Sullivan says Tewksbury still has a lot to accomplish.

"This was a good win for us but we are in no way satisfied with where we are in the season," he said. "We have eight more matches against good teams which will go a long way towards showing how far we have come as a program and team."

Tewksbury plays at Andover this afternoon.