Tyler Kendall
Editor-in-chief
The NCHS girls’ varsity tennis team won the class L State Championship on Friday, May 31, in what ended up being a rematch of last week’s FCIAC final. The Rams pulled through a 4-3 victory over Fairfield Ludlowe High School who had won the FCIAC championship title. “This victory defines our team this year,” senior captain Sara Greene said. “We were numerous times written off as not having a chance after we had some early losses in the regular season. However, we proved everyone wrong by making it to both the FCIAC and state finals.”
With each team having three wins, the match came down to the three set match of the third doubles team, seniors Emma Gruber and Giuliana Savini. After losing the first set 2-6, Emma and Giuliana came back with a 7-5 win in the second and 6-1 victory in the third. “We wanted to pump each other up and really seize the moment to win the match,” Emma said. “We knew it would be a grind but we just believed in ourselves and knew what we had to do.”
The road to victory wasn’t that easy for the Rams, but the hard work paid off. “We were seated tenth in states which was something that was new for us because we have usually been ranked 1 or 2,” Sara said. “We then had the toughest path making it to state finals, having to face Greenwich and Daniel Hand early on which are two extremely tough opponents. Then losing to Ludlowe in FCIAC finals was tough, but we proved with heart and drive you can make it.”
This is the third consecutive class L state championship for the girls’ varsity tennis team since moving from class M three years ago. The rams are now up for the FCIAC team of the week.
