Another year, another pair of Commonwealth District titles.
Albemarle High’s girls and boys tennis teams didn’t even need doubles to wrap up the district championships with the girls winning 5-0 over Riverbend while the boys rolled 5-1 past Massaponax.
For the boys squad, Lee Wilson led the way with a 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 1 singles while Will Murray coasted 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2. Wins at three, four and five by Mike Barton, Timmy Shaw and Kashyap wrapped up the victory.
Albemarle (18-0, 17-0 CD) hosts Battlefield in the Northwest Region quarterfinals on Monday at 3 p.m.
The girls may have swept 5-0, but they had to work for every bit of their fifth-consecutive Commonwealth title. Riverbend came out on a mission to avenge the Bears’ two regular season losses, but Megan Napolitano and Abby Lesnoff took care of business at No. 1 and No. 2 to the tune of 6-1, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-1 wins respectively. Maddi McCullough then pulled out a 6-4, 6-4 victory at No.5 to put Albemarle up 3-0 and at least assure a split going into doubles.
It’s a good thing she did, because that’s when things got tough for the Patriots.
Elise Lord, Alison Henry and Summer Caton all dropped their first sets, but didn’t falter against Riverbend, a Northwest region finalist in 2010 that lost to Albemarle in that round. The trio evened things in the second sets though forcing tiebreaking third sets. Henry even battled a tiebreaker in the third set, winning 7-5. Shortly thereafter, Lord clinched the match with a 6-2 set win as Caton took control of her match, leading 4-1 when the battle was halted.
“With the success we’ve had the past few seasons it might look easy from the outside,” said Albemarle coach Rich Lindsay via email. “Tonight proves otherwise. We are very familiar with each other and credit our opponent who came in here tonight and was sticking it to us.”
Albemarle will host Patrick Henry-Roanoke on Monday at 5 p.m. in the Northwest Region quarterfinals.
Girls singles: Albemarle 5, Riverbend 0
Napolitano(A) d. Nichols 6-1,6-1
Lesnoff(A) d. Klaczynski 6-4, 6-1
Henry(A) d. 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(7-5)
Lord(A) d. Edwards 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
McCullough(A) d. 6-4, 6-4
Caton(A) led Perusse 6-7(4-7), 6-2, 4-1
Boys singles: Albemarle 5, Massaponax 1
Lee Wilson (A) d. Brandon Holland, 6-1, 6-0
Will Murray (A) d. Eric Ciccone, 6-1, 6-1
Ian Howdyshell (R) d. Ben Anderson, 6-1, 6-2
Mike Barton (A) d. Evan Garr, 6-2, 6-2
Timmy Shaw (A) d. Sean O’tool, 6-2, 6-0
Kashyap Shah (A) d. Ryan Truong, 6-1, 6-1
