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Girls' Tennis Gave Top Adversaries All They Could Take

On paper, it may not seem Guilford girls' tennis improved upon its 2013 state semifinal run, but when it came to the action on the court, the Indians exceeded expectations and made their high-quality opponents sweat it out.

While Head Coach Chris Marra's squad again fell to eventual Class M champion Wilton in the quarterfinals of the state draw, it was by a much closer 4-3 margin than the Indians 7-0 postseason loss the year prior. Along the way to its 16-3 regular-season mark, Guilford (also a SCC Division I semifinalist) battled conference title-winner Hand to a trio of 4-3 defeats, in addition to scoring its first-ever victory over North Haven since before Marra's now three-season tenure-showing that the Indians are a force to be reckoned with in the SCC and Class M.

"Our goal going into this season was to be more competitive with the upper-tier teams and we accomplished that," said Marra, whose club finished fifth in Class M. "We beat North Haven and played Hand really close so we did much better than the year before, which is always good. We didn't go as far in states as last year, but we played Wilton tougher this year."

The Indians had three senior captains at the helm in their No. 1 and 2 tandem of soloists with Kristen Forscher (All-SCC, New Haven Register All-Area) and Anna Babbin (All-SCC), along with doubles competitor Rebecca Eige. Nicole Bondos also lent her additional experience as a final-year player.

"Our captains were awesome. Kristen was a leader on the court, always did her best, and represented the team well, and it was the same with Anna," said Marra. "Rebecca was one of the best doubles players, as well. All three were good with organizing and motivating the girls and helped us become stronger. Nicole played doubles the entire season; she was a good, solid player with a lot of experience that will be tough to replace."

For team awards, junior singles specialist Emily Etter netted a 22-1 mark and only dropped one set the entire campaign en route to team MVP honors. Freshman Claire Dinauer (20-4) garnered Rookie of the Year accolades, plus Babbin was the Sportsmanship Award recipient.

"Anna had a great attitude all the time. She faced adversity from her opponents, but she responded very well and respected them," said Marra. "Claire had a great year at both singles and doubles and we expect a lot from her in the next three years. Emily was a rock that didn't break. She had three wins against Hand and another versus Wilton. She also did it with such low maintenance as I never had to worry about her. She was one of the better players in the league this year and will be next year."

In addition to Guilford's signature triumph over its fellow Indians in North Haven, Marra took extra joy in the fact that his girls forced the state's premier squads to their breaking points while improving upon the Indians 14-5 record from 2013.

"For sure, our biggest accomplishment was beating North Haven. We hadn't beaten them in a while so it was nice to break the streak," said Marra. "Losing to Hand 4-3 three times made us feel real good in knowing that we could push some of the best teams around. 16-3 was also great to do because it gave us a sense of accomplishment to build around."

Building toward next season, Guilford loses a great deal of experience in the top half of its singles lineup, although it aims to counteract that with Etter, who will likely move up to the top solo slot and be a tri-captain in 2015 alongside juniors Madeline Montenegro and Genevieve Wilson.

"We will get a handful of freshmen that will help the team right away and I realize we will lose our No. 1 and 2 singles players, but we have players coming back that are excited to play," said Marra. "We have a good core of girls coming back and maybe we will also have some JV players step up."