Sweep of Norwood Highlights Week for Stoughton High Girls' Tennis

The Stoughton High girls’ tennis squad snapped an eight-match team-losing streak Wednesday against Norwood with a decisive 5-0 victory.

Kiana Kountze-Lee won in three sets at first singles, as did the first doubles pair of Valerie Szeto and Danielle Durham. The rest of the matches were decided in straight sets.

Kountze-Lee won 6-4 in the first set, dropped the second set 6-1, but came back and won the third, 6-3. Szeto and Durham lost the first set 7-6, but came back and cruised 6-1, 6-2 to take the match.  It was their third win of the week, having also beaten their doubles opponents from .

Allie Cohen won 6-1, 7-6 at second singles; Kara Morse won 6-1, 6-3 at third singles; and the second doubles team of Taylor Goodrich and Vicky Tran won 6-0, 6-3 to complete the sweep.

“I thought the Norwood match we played well,” coach Bill Donovan said. “The first time we played them it was a so to beat them 5-0 was a terrific effort.”

In the other three matches this week, the Black Knights were on the wrong side of 3-2 scores. After this week’s four matches (1-3), the team is now 3-11 on the season.

The three singles players all registered 6-0, 6-0 wins over their Stoughton counterparts on Tuesday, but against on Monday and Attleboro on Thursday, both matches could have gone either way, according to Donovan.

“This week we ended up with 1 win and 3 losses, but [it] very easily could have been 3 wins and 1 loss,” Donovan said. “Literally it came down to a couple of points during the OA match and Attleboro match.”

Against Attleboro, Szeto and Durham were going for a 4-0 week, but were edged by their opponent at first doubles. They won the first set 7-5, but lost the next two 6-4, 6-4.

Olivia Panacy was also edged in her third singles match. She won the first set 6-3, but lost the next two, 6-1, 6-4.

Stoughton’s two points came from Morse and Goodrich/Tran. Morse won 6-4, 6-1 at second singles and the second doubles pairing of Goodrich and Tran won easily 6-2, 6-0.

“It was Attleboro's first win [and] their girls were obviously excited,” Donovan said. “That was good for them; they played well and deserved it. Hopefully we can play them again during the crossover match.”

Stoughton’s next match comes next week against Oliver Ames. The Black Knights were just points away from closing out the OA match on May 9, and will get a shot at redemption against the Tigers, Monday, May 16 at Stonehill College. That match begins at 4:15 p.m.