It was the ultimate regular season battle of NVL unbeatens in girls tennis on Thursday afternoon at Naugatuck High School.
Sacred Heart, 15-0, took on 14-0 Naugatuck, in a matchup of the last two undefeated teams in the league. It was a hard-fought match by both sides, but the Greyhounds prevailed over the Hearts by a final count of 4-3. Sacred Heart finished the regular season at 15-1 while Naugatuck ended at 15-0.
Colleen Flanagan (8-6) and Ava Longo (8-3) picked up wins at No. 1 and 3 singles for the Hearts. The No. 1 doubles team of Alexa Gallino and Nhi Nguyen claimed an 8-1 win.
Three of the four Greyhound wins were absolute nail-biters. In singles, Naugatuck No. 2 Patricia Escaleira knocked off Nellie Drewry 9-7. It took Greyhound No. 4 Kelly Redmond a tiebreaker to defeat Hearts No. 4 Siobhan Gilmore, 9-8 (7-3).
The craziest match of them all came at No. 2 doubles. Naugatuck’s Brielle Behuniak and Hailey Russell needed a tiebreaker to outlast Sacred Heart’s Katie Brown and Katie Uszakiewicz by a score of 9-8 (10-8).
The Greyhound No. 3 doubles team of Cristina Rego and Natalie Paradise scored an 8-4 win over the Heart tandem of Hannah Dombroski and Najma Braddock.
It was a matchup befitting the league’s last undefeated teams. They could see each other again in next week’s NVL team tournament.
