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04/21/2017 12:00 AMLed by a veteran singles lineup and some up-and-coming doubles players, the North Haven girls’ tennis team has stormed out to a sizzling start in 2017. The Indians sport a record of 7-0, including four victories in last week’s action, and are well on their way to qualifying for the State Tournament for the eighth straight year.
Last week, North Haven won a 7-0 home match against East Haven on April 17, prevailed at Cheshire 4-3 the following afternoon, posted a 4-0 victory at Foran on April 19, and then beat West Haven 6-1 at home on April 21. Even with the one-point outcome, the Indians quickly put the Cheshire match in the bag by winning all four singles matches. North Haven also swept singles play versus Foran when the contest was called due to rain.
“I think we’re off to a really strong start, going undefeated for the first [seven] matches and, with the number of seniors on the team, that really helps give us a strong lineup. We have five seniors in the starting lineup and we’re also anchored by one of the best No. 1s in the league [sophomore Julia Migliorini], which helps us a lot,” Head Coach Bob Migliorini said. “The strength of our team is really our singles lineup. The way we have it set up is to go hard at singles and try to do as much as possible to win the match with the four singles players.”
Now in his ninth season as head coach, Migliorini feels the Indians are even stronger than last year, when they went 12-9 and lost in the first round of the Class M State Tournament. Migliorini is confident that North Haven can make a run at its first state crown if his singles players continue dominating and the doubles duos keep growing as the campaign unfolds.
“I think we are going to be better. We essentially have the same singles lineup, and the girls are one year older and one year better. We’ve put together strong doubles teams that will continue to improve. Our goal is to win the Class M state championship, and I think that is definitely a possibility,” said Migliorini, whose assistant coach is Justin Simon. “I order to do that, we need to continue to develop our doubles teams, so they improve through the course of the season and, when we get down in crunch time in the SCC and State tournaments, they give us some wins.”
North Haven’s singles players own a combined record of 26-2 this spring and, once again, sophomore Julia Migliorini is holding down the top spot in its lineup. Last season, Migliorini went 22-2, made All-SCC and All-State, was the SCC Division I Player of the Year and North Haven’s Most Valuable Player, and also won two matches at the State Open Championship. Coach Migliorini believes that his daughter can far even better in 2017 and, so far, she’s 7-0 after winning all four of last week’s matches by 6-0, 6-0 scores.
“Julia is stronger than last year. She’s gotten better over the course of the last 12 months. She has a much stronger serve, a significantly stronger backhand, and how she’s starting to be more aggressive in terms of coming up to the net with her new ground strokes,” he said. “Overall, she’s a lot stronger than she was last year at this point in time due to all her offseason training and tournaments.”
Senior sisters Olivia Hoyt and Hillary Hoyt return to the No. 2 and 3 singles positions after posting records of 11-10 and 15-5, respectively, last season. Olivia, who captains the team with fellow seniors Sejal Atluru and Nina Padro, has a mark of 6-1 after recently prevailing against East Haven (6-1, 6-2), Cheshire (6-2, 6-0), Foran (6-1, 6-0), and West Haven (6-1, 6-0). Hillary prevailed 6-0, 6-0 against East Haven, was a 6-4, 6-0 winner against Cheshire, won 6-1, 2-0 (injury default) versus Foran, and then claimed a 6-1, 6-1 win against West Haven to improve to 7-0.
“Olivia is playing better than last year. She was always steady, but now she’s able to mix in another aspect of moving the ball around a bit, hitting some drop shots, and her game is better than it was last year. The only match she lost was a three-setter to one of the best No. 2 singles players in the league, Katie Esposito from Hamden,” said Coach Migliorini. “Hillary is just so steady. She is very difficult to beat. She gets everything back, runs every ball down, makes very few unforced errors, and covers the court in an outstanding fashion. The only way to beat her is to hit her off the court, which not a lot of girls can do.”
Rounding out North Haven’s savvy singles lineup is junior Rachel Petry, who’s 6-0 after going 15-4 last season. Petry won 6-0, 6-0 decisions versus East Haven and Foran to go with a 6-4, 6-3 win versus her Cheshire competitor.
“Rachel has made tremendous improvements over the course of the last year. She played a lot of offseason tennis and has gotten a lot better,” Migliorini said. “In particular, she is much more aggressive now and steadier than she’s been in the past and makes fewer mistakes. With her ground strokes, she’s able to move girls around, and she hits the ball pretty hard, so she can move them around, wait for the short ball to come, and then comes in behind the short ball, and hits a volley to put it away.”
North Haven’s doubles lineup features senior captain Padro and fellow senior Amber Jean-Guillaume in the No. 1 position, senior captain Atluru and sophomore Zoe Bowerman at No. 2, plus the tandem of juniors Avery Hill and Katrina Nadolny at No. 3. Padro and Jean-Guillaume are reuniting after teaming up in the No. 3 slot two years ago. They earned their first win of the year with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over East Haven and then posted a 6-1, 6-4 triumph against West Haven. Doubles veteran Atluru and first-year starter Bowerman are 6-1 following last week’s 6-2, 6-0 victory against East Haven and their 6-1, 6-0 win over West Haven. Hill, who played third doubles last spring, and first-year regular Nadolny are 3-1 after posting a 6-1, 6-0 win versus East Haven and a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the West Haven match.
“There’s good chemistry between [Padro and Jean-Guillaume]. The two of them are friends and played a year together when they were sophomores, and now we’re trying to build off that with them playing the top doubles teams of all the teams we play. We hope they can give us some important wins that we’ll need against the tougher teams,” Coach Migliorini said. “Sejal has the experience and we’re coupling her with a promising 10th-grader in Zoe, who’s really athletic and someone we think has a lot of potential. So far, they’re having a good season. Avery has experience from last year and Katrina got in the lineup some last year. She’s really athletic and a pretty aggressive player and fits in well with our doubles lineup, so we’re really looking for them to step up and give us a doubles win in those matches where we can’t win every one in singles.”
As the Indians work their way into the heart of the season, they will face plenty of stiff tests with matches versus fellow perennial heavyweights like Hand, Lauralton Hall, Guilford, and Amity. Moving forward, Coach Migliorini is looking for his athletes to jell on the court and pull off a couple of wins against those clubs, while continuing to build the solid camaraderie that they’ve formed off the court.
“Overall, the chemistry is good. All the girls on the team get along well, even the girls who don’t play,” Migliorini said. “We have a good group of captains with Nina, Olivia, and Sejal, who work well together. It’s a fun team to coach. They work hard and have fun.”
In addition to everyone already mentioned, North Haven’s roster features Lexi Porto, who’s played one singles match and couple of doubles matches this year; along with fellow juniors Jashan Kang, Abby Smalley, Jennifer Smith, and Jessica Thomas; sophomores Daniella Bryson, Lily Mezzi, Yasmin Mohamed, Jessica Tran, and Melinda Vissicchio; plus freshmen Faitmah Anwar, Claire Looney, Victoria Porto, Jesse Rodrigues, and Anna Wootton.