Hopedale Tennis Makes History

Throughout the past five years the Hopedale tennis program has continually found themselves amongst the top teams not only in the Dual Valley League, but also within the state. Playing in the Division 3 Central State Tournament the boy’s squad has found themselves exiting in the Semi Final Round on three occasions and then last year in the finals. On the other side of the coin, the girl’s team captured the Sectional Title only to be eliminated in the Division 3 State Championship match against Martha’s Vineyard the past two seasons.
This spring was a different story as the boys and girl’s tennis teams made school history as both programs took home the Division Championship. The boys, under first year coach Dylan Lindsey seized its first ever title, while the girls behind Coach Amy Wersted grabbed their third straight title.
“This is the first time that the boys have won a district title in the history of the school, Hopedale Athletic Director Bill Gaine said. “I honestly can’t compare it to anything. It’s really weird as there are a lot of schools in our league that don’t even have a tennis program and we just won both the boys and the girls titles; it’s a very unique and special situation.”
In order to run the table in the tournament the girls grabbed a three seed with their regular season record of 15-0 where they handled Barltett (5-0), Leicester (5-0) and the number one seed Advanced Math and Science Academy (4-1) all with relative ease. The boys had a little bit of a tougher run going 13-3 during the regular season while earning a four seed in the tournament. Once there the Blue Raiders took out Tyngsboro (4-1), Leicester the number one team (5-0) and Whitinsville-Christian 3-2 to take home their first ever championship.
“Although in my first year as Head Coach I noticed at tryouts the first week that this team was focused and determined to go all the way; especially for the seniors,” Lindsey said. “Once we got to the tournament we played up to expectations; the boys were focused and took control of the situations in front of them.”
Leading the Hopedale boys were three seniors: Mitch Siefring played at first singles, while Bryan Goldstein and Jake Murray played doubles. Goldstein was paired with Brandon Flynn at first doubles and Murray, who came back to the team for his senior campaign, tandemed with Gabe Terando on the second doubles court. Rounding out the boy’s team was Matt Costanza, who really stepped his game up at second singles and freshman Jake Figgins held down the third singles slot.
The girls were led by the same group of girls throughout the season for the most part. Sophomore Aimee Figgins served up her opponents at first singles, junior Megan McLellan was at second singles and junior Brittany DuPuis played third singles for the Blue Raiders. Another junior Jennie Holland was teamed with freshman Maddie LaPrade at first doubles, while Missy Davis and Rachel Szemethy were at second doubles.
“We knew that the girls would be right back in the mix for the state championship,” Gaine said. “They are incredibly deep and have set high expectations for themselves. They certainly had the State Title on their mind from day one.”
Looking to get to get to their third straight Division 3 State Championship match the Hopedale girls fell to the West Champion Monument Mountain 3-2, while the boy’s advanced to their first ever state title game after blanking Mount Greylock 5-0. Unfortunately, like the girls teams of the past they were not able to get to the top of the mountain and fell 4-1 to the North Champion, Weston in the Championship match.
As the two Hopedale teams etched their name in the school record books, both teams should be back in the hunt once again next spring. The girls will lose no one from this year’s team, while the boys will say goodbye to three seniors they will be also bringing back four quality athletes to the courts.