Girls tennis team falls just short of tourney

The Revere High girls tennis team defeated Lynn English twice last Monday, temporarily raising their record to 7-7, the magical .500 mark needed to qualify for the MIAA State Tournament, but was unable to overcome Peabody and Beverly, the two top teams in the Northeastern Large School Division, in its two subsequent matches, thereby falling short of a state tourney bid.

“The girls gave it their all, but Peabody and Beverly were too strong for us,” said RHS head coach Carla Maniscalco.

The Lady Patriots engaged English in a unique doubleheader that began with a continuation of a rain delayed match from a few weeks earlier.

The singles matches had been completed, with Revere leading 2-1, but the doubles matches still were in progress.

The Lady Patriot doubles tandems of Jennifer Kingston/ Donna Le and Cristina DeFabio/Samantha Harris dispatched their English foes to give Revere a 4-1 win in the first match.

The second match proved more of the same, with Revere winning by a 4-1 margin. Elma Meskovic defeated her English counterpart at first singles, 6-1, 6-3; Victoria Mauro won at second doubles, 6-2, 6-2; and Yvonne Rincon triumphed at third singles, 6-3, 6-1.

The doubles matches both went to three sets, with the first doubles duo of Kingston and Le prevailing 6-1, 6-7,6-2, but DeFabio and Harris fell in their rematch, 6-4, 2-6, 4-6.

In the contests with Peabody on Wednesday and Beverly on Thursday, the Lady Pats came out on the short end of 5-0 decisions.

Kingston and Le played well in their match with Peabody in two hard fought sets, 3-6, 4-6, while Rincon played well in the Beverly match in a 3-6, 2-6 loss.

“We had a really good season,” said Maniscalco afterwards. “Our five seniors were solid for us all year and the underclassmen gained a lot of experience. The team worked hard to improve and they should feel good about the way they played this season.”