Although the Revere High girls tennis team dropped both of its opening matches last week to Saugus and Lynn Classical, RHS head coach Carla Maniscalco saw some encouraging signs in her young team’s performances.
The coach noted that in the loss to Saugus last week, the Lady Patriots dropped their first sets by wide margins in three of their matches, but then battled back to play their rivals evenly in the second set. Junior Cristina DiFabio, playing at second singles, lost her first set by a 6-0 margin, but then fell short in a close second set by a 7-5 score. Similarly, junior captain Nancy Nguyen, playing at third singles, dropped her first set 6-2, but almost pulled out the second set before dropping a 7-6 (7-5) decision.
At second doubles, the sophomore tandem of Mei Ling Teng and Mariah Rivera lost their first set 6-3, but came on in the second set, eventually losing by a slim 7-5 margin.
Freshman Sara Grujic is holding down the first singles slot for Maniscalco’s Lady Patriots and the junior duo of Mounia El-Arar and Karen Chan are slotted at first doubles.
“The girls need some match experience. I think once we get some more experience under our belts, we should be alright,” said Maniscalco.
Maniscalco and her squad play at Winthrop this morning (Wednesday) and at Salem next Wednesday.
