CAMBRIDGE Yes, it's a dynasty.
The Hamilton-Wenham girls tennis team left no doubt who the best Division 4 team in the Commonwealth was this season by defeating Lynnfield 5-0 in the state championship match Saturday afternoon at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's DuPont Tennis Courts.
The top-ranked Generals finish the year 19-2, have won 15 consecutive playoff games and are now the 11th team in Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association history to win three consecutive girls tennis state championships.
Senior captain Sienna Gregory and her partner Emily McIntosh were last off the court as they wrapped up a 6-4, 7-5 decision to make it a clean sweep. As the only returning senior from last year's state title team, Gregory was the first to hold the trophy and display it above her head with a huge smile.
“Those last two points, I was shaking quite a bit,” Gregory said. “This is unbelievable… I can't even believe it.”
Facing a Cape Ann League rival in the finals for the second straight year, the Generals expected No. 3 seed Lynnfield (16-7) to be an especially challenging foe in doubles. The Pioneers used the “Australian formation” (meaning both players stood on the same side of the court) a few times and also tried to use lob shots to keep HW's two pairs off balance.
“Lynnfield is a very well-coached team and we know they have some tricks up their sleeves,” said HW coach Joe Maher. “We've been working on a few things all week and the girls have adapted really well.”
It took just 50 minutes for second singles star Naomi Provost to gain the upper hand, 6-0, 6-0. A three-year starter, she has won more than 60 matches (the most of any player in Hamilton-Wenham tennis history, boys or girls) and set the tone with her hard, aggressive returns.
Just ten minutes later, Emma Jani defeated her first singles opponent 6-0, 6-1, leaving the Generals just one point away from the three-peat.
'What more can we say about Emma and Naomi? We knew they were going to shoot and they did,” Maher said.
At second doubles, seniors Maddie Minich and Angelina Meimeteas took the opening set 6-2. Perhaps sensing that their team was closing in on the championship, they thrived with a number of winners close to the net and cruised to a 6-1 set win, bringing joyful cheers from the HW fans lining the fences around the courts were set up.
“We are working on playing aggressively at the net. We also want to position ourselves on the baseline and the girls did a great job,” Maher said.
“Maddie has worked so hard to get where she is today. Angelina is a kid I've always seen as a singles player, and one weekend she spent seven hours working on her volleys. She just really wanted it this year.”
Although the result was not in question, there were plenty of spirited volleys at the third singles. Hamilton-Wenham's Ellie Holbrook took the first set 6-2, but Lynnfield's Maddie Sieve had an edge in the second set. Holbrook rallied to win the final game of the second set and then had full control of the tiebreak, earning a 7-6 (7-1) decision.
“Ellie was the highlight for me,” Maher said. “She did some things in terms of getting to the net that she hadn't done all season. Normally she's a starter, but she took a few risks against a great player and it made a huge difference.”
It didn't take long after Holbrook's win for Gregory and McIntosh to complete the sweep.
“It was about taking our time and finding our technique,” Gregory said. “We passed well. We had to concentrate on staying aggressive, moving our feet and tracking our shots.”
With five players in the lineup who did not appear in the 2023 state championship game, the Generals did a phenomenal job of reloading to defend their state title. Huge improvements from players like Minich and McIntosh made a huge difference, and the way HW's doubles teams found their chemistry midway through the season unlocked the team's true potential.
“This year was a very different experience and I loved that. I loved finding a new partner and playing together,” says Gregory, who will attend Fairfield University next year. “All of our girls worked so hard and practiced extra to get where they were. Everyone came through.”
After stopping for a celebratory ice cream, the generals were met with a police escort when they arrived back in the city. Sirens sounded all the way back to high school to signify another state tennis title for the HW girls.
“You couldn't have written it better,” Maher said. “This was a great highlight of the season. It was a great, fun game against a very talented opponent. All our girls played great.”
