The Newburyport girls didn’t bother wasting anyone’s time.
Wanting to leave the Nock Courts as early as possible on Friday afternoon, the No. 6-seeded Clippers absolutely crushed No. 27 Wakefield in the first round of the Division 2 playoffs, 5-0. All told by the end of the match, the Clippers (13-4) only allowed the visiting Warriors (3-14) to win three total points.
At singles, the trio of Elsie DeGrano at No. 1 (6-0, 6-1), Kate Mellet at No. 2 (6-0, 6-0) and Leah Enes at No. 3 (6-0, 6-1) all won easily. Then it was basically the same story at doubles, where the first team of Gretchen Boelke and Sadie Reardon won 6-0, 6-1, while the second unit of Poppy Jones and Caroline Weetman won a perfect 6-0, 6-0 match.
Newburyport now advances to the Div. 2 Round of 16, where it’ll host No. 11 Longmeadow on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Amesbury boys cruise to ‘Sweet 16’
For the first time since the new MIAA statewide format was introduced, the Amesbury boys have won a playoff match.
And it’s the program’s first postseason victory since at least 2012.
On Thursday afternoon, the No. 8-seeded Redhawks had little issue taking down No. 25 Westport in the first round of the Division 4 tournament, winning 4-1. Both Noah Blouin and Andrew Roberts won in straight sets at Nos. 2 and 3 singles, Luke Sheehan triumphed in a marathon three-set match at No. 1 singles, and the first doubles team of Max Kerstein and Julian Sherwood won easy.
Amesbury (5-9) is now moving on to the Division 4 Round of 16, where it’ll host No. 9 Lee on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
Pentucket boys bow out in ‘Sweet 16’
The Pentucket boys weren’t able to do it twice.
It was thrilling start to the Division 3 playoffs for the No. 10-seeded Panthers on Thursday afternoon, earning a 3-2 victory over No. 23 Foxborough in the first round of the tournament. The team got singles win from Cosmo Lund at No. 1 and Maddox Heller at No. 2, while the doubles team of Rhyas Dewar and Tyler Truong clinched it for the Panthers.
But on Sunday, the season came to an end.
Pentucket made the trip down to the Cape to take on No. 7 Falmouth, and couldn’t pull off another nailbitter in a 3-2 loss in the Division 3 Round of 16. Still, this spring was one of the better ones in quite some time for the Panthers (9-7), who were one win shy of doubling their total from a year ago.
End of the road for Pentucket girls
In the end, it was still a good experience for the Pentucket girls.
For a starting lineup of Zoe Cennami, Josie Ciccione, Nora Mahoney, Eve Dunn, Fiona Moore, Brooke Pipan and Jessy Krisiak, the spring still had its highs. The Panthers (4-12) were able to win three matches during the regular season, before dominating their way to a 5-0 sweep in the preliminary round of the Division 3 state tournament.
But on Sunday morning, it was time to move on to summer.
The No. 27 Panthers put up a good fight, but fell to No. 6 Swampscott in the D3 first round, 5-0. Cennami won two points at No. 1 singles for the Panthers, and the first doubles team of Pipan and Krisiak took three total points.