A wild near-24 hours for two Massachusetts girls tennis teams has come to an end.
At 10 a.m. on Thursday morning, the MIAA released a statement reversing a decision it had made the night before regarding the No. 2 Newburyport vs. No. 3 Pembroke Division 3 state semifinal match. As a result, Pembroke was declared the winner of the match — for the second time — 3-2, and advances to Saturday’s State Championship against No. 4 Weston.
For Newburyport (17-4), its quest for a third straight Division 3 Championship comes to an end.
So what exactly happened?
With Wednesday’s match at Sharon High tied at 2-2, it all came down to No. 3 singles between Newburyport’s Bridgette Mellet and Pembroke’s Emma Gerlach. Gerlach won the first set 7-6 (7-4), while Mellet won the second 6-4 to tie up the match. According to the MIAA playoff format, a full third set should have been played.
However, according to the MIAA’s press release: “There was a misapplication of the format for play by the MIAA official on site.”
The two athletes were instructed by the official to instead played a first-to-10 super tiebreaker, which Gerlach won 10-7. Her victory, at the time, sent Pembroke (19-2) moving on to the finals. But some time after the conclusion of the match, Newburyport brought to the official’s attention that a full third set should have been played. The official then deemed that the match was not over, and the two teams were to meet back up on Thursday so Mellet and Gerlach could play a full third set.
Pembroke did appeal that decision at the time, but were told the match had to be finished on Thursday.
“The MIAA rule was not applied by the tennis official under the tennis format,” Newburyport Athletic Director Kyle Hodsdon told the Newburyport News on Wednesday night. “Because of that, the format must be followed correctly and the third set must be played in its entirety.”
The match was over. Then an hour later, it wasn’t.
But then on Thursday morning, it was over again.
The MIAA press release read: “The singles match in question was played to its conclusion, and a winner declared. MIAA Rule 17 states in part that, ‘All results shall be final when the contest has been concluded by the game officials.’ Rule 17 is consistently applied across all sports.
“MIAA Rule 81.1 states in part that, ‘Massachusetts high school tennis shall be played under the rules of the United States Tennis Association.’ The ‘Principles’ section of the USTA Friends of Court states in part that, ‘Shaking hands at the end of a match is an acknowledgment by the players that the match is over.’
“Pembroke High School is the winner of the singles match in question, and the result of the match between the two schools is final.”
It was reiterated that since the mistake was discovered after the match had been concluded, the result of the super tiebreaker stood.
The controversy unfortunately marred what was a great high school tennis match between two worthy teams. Newburyport got wins from its doubles squads of Delaney Woekel/Elsie DeGrano (6-2, 6-0) and Lauren Brennan/Janie Turgeon (6-3, 6-3), but Pembroke, in the end, won all three singles matches to punch its ticket to the finals.
Newburyport was the back-to-back State Champion and overcame roster turnover and a season-long injury to one of its top players to have another terrific year — and make a serious run at a three-peat. But for the first time since the MIAA moved to the statewide playoff format in 2021, there will be a new champion in Division 3.
The official Newburyport Athletics Twitter/X account posted on Thursday: “This resilient group preferred to be on different tennis court this afternoon, but minutes after learning the MIAA’s decision reversal, they chose to have a team practice and be ready, just in case!”