The Westbrook girls’ tennis team had one of the best seasons in program history in 2023. With a near perfect record and a lot of talent on the roster, the Knights are primed and ready to grow on this season next spring.

After a 16-1 regular season record that landed them in the finals of both the Shoreline Conference Tournament and Class S State Tournament, Westbrook fell short of securing a state title as they lost to the undefeated and No. 1 seed Old Lyme Wildcats 7-0 in the championship game on June 15 at Wesleyan University. Despite coming up short of a title, Head Coach Paula Fitzgerald, who earned her 500th win of her career during the season, was proud of the girls for making it to their second consecutive Class S State Championship.

“I can’t be anything but proud,” said Fitzgerald. “We talked at the end of the previous season — that I’ve seen this happen in the past in many sports. A group of juniors followed a very successful group of seniors (we had just lost in the state finals and graduated five starters and the first sub was also a senior) and just assumed it’s going to happen to them. I stated it doesn’t just happen — it takes a lot of work and dedication to accomplish what they did. We’ll pull off the same thing.”

In the title game, the Wildcats won all seven matches en route to their third straight state crown and the second in which they’ve defeated Westbrook. Fitzerald knows they are a well-coached and skilled team.

“OL is a great team; talented and well coached, they deserve all the accolades they are receiving.”

Junior Olivia Palumbo (Second Team All-Shoreline) pointed out how well Old Lyme’s forehand and backhand strokes were. She also credited their athleticism with how they always got back to the ball.

“Their forehand and backhand strokes are near perfect just from practice,” said Palumbo. “Other teams also are just not as athletic and spunky as the Old Lyme players are. They will pretty much get to any ball on the court and get it back over the net.”

Even though they didn’t walk away with championship hardware, the Knights still have a lot to be proud of as they look back on the campaign. They started the season 5-0 and won their last 11 games, suffering just one loss. They qualified as the second seed in the Class S State Tournament and defeated No. 15 Coginchaug 6-1, No. 7 Bolton 7-0, and No. 6 Shepaug 4-3, outsourcing them by a combined score of 17-4.

In the semifinal match vs. Shepaug, Westbrook won all three doubles matches. In No. 3 doubles, Gabby Spash and Norah Hayden, after losing the first set 3-6, came back strong to take the next two sets at love. The second doubles team of Natalie Palumbo and Giovanna Silva also made a comeback in their match. After winning the first set 6-1, they fell behind in the second set 1-4 before gutting out a 7-6 (7-5) victory. The lone singles win came from Megan Bache (First Team All-Shoreline) at No 1. singles.

Part of a team’s success is the strong leadership of the captains. The Knights certainly had that in their four court leaders in Ava Ciarcia (Second Team All-Shoreline), Adriana Stranieri (Second Team All-Shoreline), Delaney Belcourt and Caroline Dias (Shoreline All-Conference Honorable Mention).

Belcourt is grateful for her time spent on the courts with her teammates but wishes she had more time with them.

“Looking back to my time on the Westbrook tennis team, I wouldn’t have done anything differently,” said Belcourt. “I was part of the team for two seasons but I always wish I joined sooner. I will forever remember the bonds I built with my coaches and teammates.”

Toward the end of the season on May 12, Fitzgerald earned the 500th victory of her career in a 6-1 win over Morgan. She was unaware of the milestone at the time as the team surprised her.

“I was totally unaware — never really kept track,” said Fitzgerald. “The players, parents, and AD surprised me. I think a milestone such as this speaks more to the longevity you’ve given to the sport and especially speaks to players you’ve been able to coach throughout the years.”

The milestone just happened to be Belcourt’s favorite moment of the season.

“My favorite memory from this past season was seeing our coach’s reaction when we surprised her with a celebration for her 500th in-season girls’ tennis win,” said Belcourt.

On June 8, the team had their end-of-the-season team awards. Palumbo and Stranieri (No. 1 doubles) won team MVPs. Bache earned the selection of the Most Improved Player this season. Ciarcia was given the Coaches Award and Ava Dias-Heringer was the JV Coaches Award recipient. Bache and Palumbo were named the captains for next season.

The Knights will lose six seniors next season, including the four captains of Ciarcia, Stranieri, Belcourt and Dias, as well as Myan Nguyen and Gabriela Splash. Fitzgerald knows it will be hard to replace that core, who all had experience going into this season of being in the state finals a year ago.

“It’s going to be hard to replace them; they were part of last year’s team that went to the finals,” said Fitzerald. “Myan and Gabby were not yet starters but the others were.”

Besides Bache and Palumbo, other returning starters include Natalie Palumbo, Silva and Hayden, all of whom played doubles this year. Fitzgerald is confident in the core she has but hopes they can find more players to join the team.

“Olivia and Megan will do a great job but we need to find athletes who want to play tennis as there are not 10 returning players,” said Fitzgerald.

Both Bache and Palumbo are ready to take what the seniors taught them into next season and plan to set up more team-organized activities and more offseason training.

“I know the remaining team members are already really motivated to put in the work necessary to do as well as we did this year,” said Bache. “As captains, we will encourage new players to play as much as possible in the offseason. Also, organizing extra team practices and helping each other to improve while supporting each other will help with our overall success next season.”

Palumbo hopes to encourage her teammates to stay focused and committed to improving on a daily basis, and she will help them get extra practice time in.

“I plan to keep everyone accountable this summer on getting better,” said Palumbo. “A team just doesn’t have a great season; you have to put work in to achieve it. I am going to get some of my friends from the team to come play with me at the courts. One of my expectations for us is to make it into the state tournament playoffs, but we have to keep our expectations and goals high so we can keep getting better to achieve them. All I hope for next season is to have a team that chooses to get better every day and wants to be out on the courts playing with each other.”

The 2023 Westbrook girl’s tennis team was comprised of sophomore Bache, senior Belcourt, sophomore Emily Bonner, senior Ciarcia, sophomore Dias-Heringer, senior Dias, junior Hayden, sophomore Alexa Kiss, senior Nguyen, freshman Natalie Palumbo, junior Olivia Palumbo, junior Riley Pluck, sophomore Silva, senior Splash, and senior Stranieri.

To see more photos from the Class S state final, visit this gallery at: https://www.zip06.com/photo-galleries/20230620/westbrook-girls-tennis-class-s-final/