Singles Shine as Westwood Rolls Over Holliston

The Westwood High School varsity girls tennis team improved to 6-2 Monday afternoon with a 4-1 home victory against the Holliston Panthers (2-4).

MaryKate Norton led the way for the Wolverines with her victory at first singles, 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 as she defeated Holliston’s Kristen Ydoate. Norton appeared to be well on her way to winning in straight sets, but the sophomore Ydoate hung tough and stretched it out until the third.

“She struggled in the second set and lost,” said Westwood head coach Paul Houston about Norton. “She’s used to playing and being ahead so it was a highlight for me that she went down a set and was dealing with a little adversity on the court and figured things out and came back.”

Captain and second singles Kelley Steeves cruised in straight sets 6-2 6-0 against Danielle Potemri and Houston evaluated her performance.

“Kelley’s always Kelley," Houston said. "She’s out there running every ball down giving it her all and she’s a captain and she shows it on the court."  

Third singles Abby Groton found herself down 0-3 after the first three games against Alex Cahill, but she kept her composure and pounded out the next 12 games for a 6-3 6-0 win.

Holliston’s Katie Emerson and Flannery Eagan held off Lily Steeves and Joanne Nasr in first doubles after dropping the first set 1-6, and took the match 1-6 6-3 6-2.

“They did a great job coming back after losing the first set, said Holliston head coach Terri Gallant. “Overall, they did a tremendous job regaining their confidence and finishing it off.”

Houston also praised the pair and talked about how hard they worked.

“It’s really tough to come back from a 1-6 loss in the first,” he said. “Most teams would just turn around and say, ‘we lost this one,’ but they did not give up and they brought it to us.”

The Wolverines bounced back, however, with a second doubles victory by Melanie Zahka and Andrea Winn as they handled Erika Earley and Annie Underwood in three. After taking the first set with relative ease, 6-3, they dropped the second 4-6 but battled back with a 6-1 third.

After the match, Gallant talked about her team’s recent struggles.  

“We’re not as confident as we need to be to win the match, but we’re getting there,” she said. “We just need to improve on consistency and on keeping the ball deep and we’ll be fine.”

Both teams will play their next match on Wednesday.