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05/30/2023 01:57 PMPreseason goals and expectations for a team aren’t always met. Obstacles can get in the way, especially ones out of the team’s control. For the Guilford girls’ tennis team, they’re using the roadblocks they’ve faced throughout the spring as fuel for what will hopefully be another state title.
After a strong regular season that left Guilford with a 16-4 record, they found themselves as the No. 2 seed heading into the SCC Tournament. On May 19, Guilford played a quarterfinal match against 7th-seeded Sacred Heart Academy and won 6-1 before defeating the No. 3 seed Daniel Hand Tigers 5-2 in a semifinal matchup on May 22.
While the stove was hot and the girls were playing well, they hoped to finish the job and secure a victory in the final round on May 23. Instead, the Grizzlies fell 6-1 to No. 1 Amity Regional.
Despite the fact that Guilford came up short of its goal, Head Coach Chris Marra had a lot of positive takeaways from the team’s overall effort in the tournament.
“We opened up with a pretty nice win against Sacred Heart. Then we beat Hand again, 5-2, which was another good match,” Marra said. “We had some big wins in three singles from Molly Peterson (junior, four singles) and from Peyton Lynch (sophomore, two doubles). We also had a good win in three doubles by Kate DeAngelo (senior) and Mia Hardy (sophomore). Both Riley Mullett (senior, captain) and Kallie Kagan (junior, captain) won it in one and two singles.”
In the dominant regular season that the squad put together, Marra saw the toughness displayed in his players when they defeated some tough competition within their SCC adversaries and out-of-conference opponents.
“The regular season wound up really well. We had very good wins against some tough competition,” said Marra. “We beat Hand to close out the season, which was a really big thrilling win for us. We had a tough loss against Stonington, but we played really well. We still had good wins over Cheshire and North Haven and other conference rivals. I was very pleased with how the season went overall and very happy that we were able to win that last match.”
Mullett was down in the first set (4-1) and came back to win the third set for a 6-2 victory in the Grizzlies’ win over the Tigers.
Throughout the season, Marra noted that a majority of the team has done very well, which is transparent to their regular season record. Top contributors included Izzy Bowman (senior, one doubles), Sophie Gochman-Nadolna (sophomore, one doubles), Alexie Gipson (junior, two doubles), and Gabby Kellner (junior, two doubles).
“I think a lot of the team has done really well. Izzy and Sophie played a great match against Hand at the end of the season. They had a couple of match points, and it was a great match,” said Marra. “Alexie and Gabby actually got the win in two doubles to get the win against Hand, which helped us win that match. That batch of girls, which is 11 of them, have really stepped up and done a great job.”
The full Grizzlies roster is comprised of 28 girls and Marra mentioned that every year the Grizzlies are a big team, ranging between 25-30 players of different experience levels.
“As far as the regular season goes, we had a big team. Every year we have a big team of 25-30 players. There are always a few players that may not finish the season. This year every girl has stayed and is still excited,” said Marra. “That says a lot about the culture that the team creates for everybody. I am really happy, and I said to the girls ‘One of our best accomplishments as a group is that we all made it through the whole season.’”
The Grizzlies began state tournament play on May 27 as the 4th-seeded team in Class L. They faced No. 20 Pomperaug in a first round matchup, winning by a score of 7-0.
Leadership is key to any team’s success, so Marra will rely heavily on his three captains (Mullett, Kagan, and Kellner) to help guide the team through every step of the state tournament and keep the team at ease despite the pressure.
As the Grizzlies lock in and begin to pursue the goal of running back the state title they won a year ago, Marra hopes to keep his team focused and wants to make sure they are giving it their all every day at practice, especially as they go deeper into the playoffs.
“I think the first couple of matches will be comfortable. The challenges will come hard and fast in the semifinals and the finals,” said Marra. “One of our goals is to never stop improving, we like to look at it as we are going to keep going, keep playing well, continue to do our best. We are going to practice over the weekend and over Memorial Day,” said Marra. “We want to really make sure that when we get to the quarterfinals on Tuesday, when we get there, that we are ready to put our best foot forward and continue to do that throughout the rest of the season.”
The Grizzlies full roster is comprised of Bowman, DeAngelo, Mullett, Katera Prohaski (senior), Alexandra Bobrow (junior), Irene Esplugues (junior), Gipson, Kagan, Kellner, Peterson, Ava Scandone (junior), Clara Arpie (sophomore), Luciana Brechlin (sophomore), Julia Castonguay (sophomore), Olivia Cowperthwait (sophomore), Gochman-Nadolna, Hardy, Caroline Hergan (sophomore, singles), Thitida Khambounhounag (sophomore, doubles), Lynch, Veronica Zuniga (sophomore), Hannah Brown (freshman), Sabrina Chung (freshman), Makenna Clark (freshman), Katherine Gasparini (freshman), Juliette Kellner (freshman), Sienna Pagano (freshman), and Breann Shelton (freshman).