WELLESLEY – With the MIAA State Tennis Tournaments set to begin this week, several top girl’s competitors were in action for the USTA Massachusetts High School Individual Singles and Doubles Championships at Babson College.
The tandem of Sienna Solorza and Emily Zhu from Newton South defeated Lincoln-Sudbury’s Lindsey Grosberg and Nina Gill 7-6, 6-3 in the doubles championship while Wellesley’s Kimmy Tai defeated Natick’s Grace Zhang 6-3, 6-3 in singles.
The morning started with the singles semifinals, where Tai defeated Acton-Boxboro’s Maya Muhunthan and Zhang defeated Sophia Lirio of Notre Dame Academy. That set the final for an afternoon start and full attention shifted to the doubles.
The first set was a back-and-forth affair that saw the teams trade points. Lincoln-Sudbury’s pair claimed a 5-4 lead and had a chance to finish it off but Solorza and Zhu were able to lock in and win consecutive sets.
“We just forgot about the score,” Solorza said on their strategy when down 5-4. “We get a little tense sometimes but we talk to each other between every point and work really well together. If something is off, I tell her or she tells me and we adjust really well.”
Grosberg and Gill would fight back to even it at six but Solorza and Zhu prevailed in the tiebreaker. This set up a second set that gave Newton South’s pair a chance to win the match. The two sides battled to a 3-3 tie but three straight points from Solorza and Zhu sealed the deal.
“We’re good at targeting their weaknesses,” Zhu said of their strategy. “I thought we could get to the finals, and we got it done.”
The sophomore-freshman duo did not drop a single set on their run to the championship and will now focus on dominating the second doubles spot for the second-seeded Lions in the Division 1 tournament.
“We’re a pretty guaranteed win in second doubles,” Solorza said. “Hopefully we can utilize that to go on a run.”
The singles final started a bit later and Tai and Zhang quickly got to work. With the match being within her hometown, Tai enjoyed taking advantage of the opportunity.
“I’m really glad we played here,” Tai said. “I got to go home between the matches and relax. Sectionals will also be here this year so it was nice to get used to the court.”
The competitors battled to a 2-2 tie before Tai broke through her serve and jumped to a 5-2 lead. She would finish it off 6-3 and fought to the same lead to claim the victory in straight sets.
“This year she has become much more aggressive and has much more variety,” Wellesley coach Rob Miller said. “She got a little tired at times but she made some shots that were remarkable.”
After the grind of the weekend, Tai said she knows the experience will pay off as she looks to help the Raiders in the Division 1 tournament.
“I got through six matches in a row this weekend,” Tai said. “I had never done that before and now that I have I know I will be able to push through one tough match each round in the tournament.”
