Winchester Tennis Continues Winning Streak

It’s been an for Winchester head coach Paul Sughrue over the course of the last five years as he’s been able to rack up 110 consecutive wins with the girls’ tennis team.

After an 18-0 regular season, the Lady Sachems kicked off their hunt for a fifth straight state championship with a 5-0 win over Belmont High School.

“It’s definitely been a fun run for us, and it’s pretty cool that we’ve been able to continue having so much success,” Sughrue said of his current streak. “Our seniors on the team this year have actually never lost a match, and it’s just been an incredible couple years.”

Focusing on the task at hand, though, Sughrue was very happy with his team’s performance in the opening round of the 2011 playoffs as they got off to a strong start.

“We were pretty solid all around tonight, from doubles to singles, and it was a really good win for us and get things started on the right foot in the states,” Sughrue said. “The trick really is to never look past your opponent, and Belmont is definitely a tough team, so I thought the girls did a good job of focusing on tonight.”

The two doubles teams for Winchester made quick work of their Belmont opponents, setting the tone for the match early on.

At first doubles, the team of sisters in Karen and Katie McKeaough took out Belmont’s Alexandra Tilden and Stephanie Jean by a score of 6-0, 6-3. The second doubles tandem of Sara Wheeler and Maddie Mangan cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Juliet Barker and Kara O’Neill, and Winchester held a quick 2-0 lead.

“Our doubles are pretty strong, and we tend to really count on them match in and match out, and they obviously pulled through for us again tonight,” said Sughrue.

From there the Lady Sachems went on to sweep their singles matches to take the 5-0 win. Abigail Shewalter and Alex Criss cruised to lopsided victories at one and two singles respetively. Shewalter knocked off Belmont’s Annie Hang 6-2, 6-0 while Criss took out Hannah Harris 6-1, 6-2. It was impressive stuff from Winchester’s two go-to singles players to help seal the win.

Third singles delivered perhaps the most exciting match of the night as Winchester’s Chloe Georjaklis and Belmont’s Choah Kim fought through a 3-set battle, with Georjaklis coming out on top, winning 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.

The Sachems will face Concord-Carlisle in the semifinals, Thursday, June 9 at 3:30 p.m.