By Julia Allen

After a quick win against Silver Lake (5-0) early last week, the Duxbury girls’ tennis team suffered three disappointing losses against Marshfield (1-4 and 2-3) and Scituate (1-4).{sidebar id=4}

Becca Winans played Kelly MacFarlane in the first singles spot against Silver Lake, winning her match 6-3/6-2, while Emily Averna, playing second singles, beat Emily Warnock 6-1/6-1. Michaela Dowd stepped into the third singles spot to play Andrea Clawson, winning her match with identical scores of 6-1. 

The first doubles team of Liza Thomas and Jackie Enniss played a quick match against Silver Lake’s Jenna Pitts and Julie Felts (6-0/6-0). Gaby Sumner and Suzanne DeDeyne debuted as a team in the second doubles spot, opposing Sarah Williams and Emily Shiarizzi, and winning 6-1/6-0.

On Tuesday the girls played Marshfield at home, and it proved to be a tough match for the Lady Dragons. Averna played in the first singles spot against an aggressive Amelia Matthew and dropped the match, but not without a fight in the second set (1-6/5-7). Dowd stepped up to the second singles against Marshfield’s Kyra Holquist, a very consistent opponent, who beat  Dowd, 1-6/3-6. Casey Reinhart, playing Leah Kelly in the third singles spot, also lost her match by scores of 3-6/ 0-6. {sidebar id=1}

Thomas and Enniss continue to work well as a team, but could not beat their Marshfield opponents and lost their match, 3-6/5-7, while Annie Gluskin and Jane Morgan played a long match in the second doubles spot, putting up a fight to win their match by a score of 6-4/4-6/6-4.

The girls traveled to Marshfield the following day, hoping for a win that would put them in the tournament. However, their pursuit was not successful. 

Winans resumed play in the first singles spot against Matthew, but wasn’t able to close the third set after quickly winning the second, and lost the match, 4-6/6-0/5-7. Averna challenged Holquist, but suffered a similar fate, as Dowd did the day before, losing the match, 3-6/1-6, while Dowd played Leah Kelly and beat (6-3, 1-6, 6-2) her opponent in the third set by staying on her toes and hitting aggressive shots. 

Thomas and Enniss worked well as a team in the first doubles spot, winning their match that also went to a third set, 6-1/3-6/6-4, while Cory Tucker and Erin Nelson played in the second doubles spot for the first time this week and lost 4-6/0-6.   

The Lady Dragons played their fourth match of the week on Thursday in Scituate.  Winans lost at #1 singles to Katie Pritchard, while Averna, who played Kate O’Connor in the second singles spot, dropped her match, 3-6/1-6. Dowd played an excellent match at #3 singles playing against Caroline Martin, as her match not only had a tiebreaker in the second set, but also went onto a third set. Dowd persevered and ultimately won the close match with scores of 6-3/6-7/6-4. 

Thomas played with Gluskin in the first doubles spot, but the team couldn’t beat Scituate’s Brittany Cangemi and Shelah Joyce (1-6/5-7). Nelson and Tucker stumbled in their match against Devin Horgan and Destinee Ringler (0-6/2-6).

The team will be pushing for a win this week when they take on Cohasset, Norwell, and Sandwich, hoping to stay at the .500 mark or better to qualify.{sidebar id=6}