Sports
FCIACs Round 1: Rams Girls Tennis Sweeps Ridgfield
New Canaan will host Warde or Darien in the next bout Tuesday.
Opening day was a good day for the Rams girls tennis team in the FCIAC tournament. As they did in the regular season, the top seeded Rams easily won over No. 8 seed Ridgefield, sweeping all seven matches—four singles and three doubles—in the first playdown (quarter final).
Tina Tehrani won at No. 1 singles over Carlie Sanderude. Tehrani, who's headed for Georgetown in the fall, won both sets at love. Tehrani said afterwards, "I try to take something positive from every match I play, so there's no problem in playing down."
Kate Mannelly, who's been playing at No. 1 when Tehrani isn't available, played at No. 2 and beat Shannon Stainken, 6-1, 6-1. Caitlin Gallagher was a 6-0, 6-1 winner over Anne Zukowski and her sister Courtney, at No. 4 singles, beat Marissa Bodner 6-0, 6-0.
At No. 1 doubles, the undefeated team of Alyssa Baker and Kimmy Glerum stayed undefeated, winning every game in their match against Christine Fernandez and Christy Marchiano. Amanda Merjian and Phoebe Wilks straight-setted Rebecca Brands and Sophia Nicolella, 6-2, 6-3.
In the most competitive match of the day, at No. 2 doubles, Emily Greene and Kristin Laub, playing together for the first time, pulled one out over Leah Petrucelli and Gemma Howard. In a first set tiebreak the Rams won seven points to five. They fell behind at 0-3 in the second set, but came back to win six of the next seven games to win the set 6-4.
Serving for the match at 5-4, Greene got three of her first serves in at crunch time, putting a lot of pressure on the returners as the Rams pulled it out for the sweep.
"When we were down 0-3 in the set, Emily and I decided to really get our heads into it." said Laub, one of five freshman on Gail Overbeck's 18-0 squad.
Laub showed good hands as she came up with a lot of half volleys as well as pickups. She also won a lot of points returning serves, mixing going cross court with winners down the line. She certainly kept the opponent at the net on her toes.
New Canaan plays in the FCIAC semi-final round on Tuesday at home against the Warde/Darien winner. The Rams beat both teams in the regular season, Warde last Tuesday in a match that was played indoors because of the rain.
