Derryfield girls tennis team earns 3rd straight Div. I title -- again on deciding No. 2 doubles match

HOOKSETT — Pola Jankowska and Neha Veeranna balanced the pressure with encouragement.

Jankowska and Veeranna hyped each other up between games as they narrowly pulled out their No. 2 doubles match, securing Derryfield School its third straight NHIAA Division I girls tennis championship.

The Cougars defeated Bedford by a 5-4 score for the third straight year at Southern New Hampshire University. Each year, the title was decided by the No. 2 doubles match.

“I know that court,” 26th-year Derryfield coach Gustavo Moral said after the team won its 11th overall state title. “I have my spot over there. My heart knows where to go.”

Bedford (16-1) was undefeated entering the final and beat the Cougars (16-1) by a 5-4 score in the regular season.

Jankowska, a senior from Hollis, and Veeranna, a freshman from Bedford, earned an 8-6 win in their back-and-forth match against Bedford’s No. 2 doubles team of Lucy Novak and Anna Diaz.

The Derryfield duo’s strategy was to create long rallies and make Novak and Diaz falter first.

Using subtle communication, Jankowska and Veeranna switched places when needed during rallies. They played well at the net and frequently earned points with timely drop shots. Veeranna hit several strong overhand shots from the baseline to keep rallies alive.

They won the match on a drop shot just over the net that Diaz reached but sent into the net.

“We were focusing on keeping the cross-court rally, mostly,” Jankowska said, “and also being aggressive at the net — just moving back and forth and being able to put away those shots and working on our shot placement.”

Jankowska also had experience to draw from. She won last year’s title-deciding No. 2 doubles match with her now-graduated former partner, Lucy Yakola, by an 8-5 score.

Bedford coach Cathy Farrell said her team hoped to be ahead after singles play — and the Bulldogs nearly were.

In a battle between freshmen, Bedford’s Alina Barascout built an early 3-0 lead on Derryfield’s Annie Lin in the No. 1 singles match.

Lin then won eight of the next 10 games. She took the lead for good at 6-5 and earned an 8-5 win over Barascout in a match that lasted about 90 minutes.

Lin lost to Barascout in the earlier meeting of the teams.

“She’s mentally tough,” Moral said. “She knew what she had to do. We talked about doing a couple of specific things and, more than anything, for her to keep within herself and she executed. The pressure goes both ways.”

Veeranna said Lin’s singles win, which tied the match, gave the rest of the team confidence entering doubles play.

Moral said Derryfield has worked extensively on doubles and considers that a strength of this year’s team.

“They know how to position themselves, how to attack the net,” Moral said. “They were able to do that. To do it against an excellent team like Bedford should make them feel very proud of their accomplishment.”

After a short break, Lin went back out to the same court with her No. 1 doubles partner, Cougars senior captain Sofia Koshy, and defeated Barascout and Kaylee Raff, 8-1.

Alongside Lin, Derryfield got singles victories from Jankowska and No. 5 player Sarina Punjabi.

Novak, Raff and Akshara Kilari earned singles wins for Bedford.

The Bulldogs’ No. 3 doubles team of Kilari and Elyse Flynn defeated Derryfield’s Punjabi and Marissa Wu, 8-1.

“They’re a strong team,” Farrell said of the Cougars. “It can go either way (between us) any day of the week.”

ahall@unionleader.com

NHIAA Division I girls tennis final

Derryfield 5, Bedford 4

Wednesday, at SNHU

Singles: Annie Lin (D) def. Alina Barascout, 8-5; Lucy Novak (B) def. Neha Veeranna, 8-5; Kaylee Raff (B) def. Sofia Koshy, 8-2; Pola Jankowska (D) def. Anna Diaz, 9-7; Sarina Punjabi (D) def. Elyse Flynn, 8-5; Akshara Kilari (B) def. Marissa Wu, 8-4.

Doubles: Lin/Koshy (D) def. Barascout/Raff, 8-1; Veeranna/Jankowska (D) def. Diaz/Novak, 8-6; Flynn/Kilari (B) def. Punjabi/Wu, 8-2.



* This article was originally published here

Popular posts from this blog

Venus Williams returns with doubles win at DC Open

Image
Venus Williams made her return to competitive tennis after a 16-month hiatus with a women's doubles victory at the WTA and ATP DC Open (Rob Carr) Seven-time Grand Slam single champion Venus Williams returned to competitive tennis after a 16-month hiatus on Monday with a doubles victory at the WTA and ATP DC Open. The 45-year-old American joined compatriot Hailey Baptiste to defeat Canada's Eugenie Bouchard and US teen Clervie Ngounoue 6-3, 6-1 in a first-round match. "After the match Hailey asked me, 'How did that feel?' It's probably even harder to play the doubles first because I'm not a doubles player," Williams said. "So it's great to have her to kind of hold the team up. She has had the experience. She served first because she has been playing all year and playing well. I think that helped me a lot. "I think also just to get the feel for the ball. Obviously singles I have a little more experience even though doubles I have had so...
Read more

Opinion: Coco Gauff doesn't dominate tennis, and that's OK. She's still rare.

It’s time for American sports fans – even American tennis fans – to stop taking Coco Gauff for granted.  On some level, that’s a crazy sentence to write. For two straight years, she has been the highest-paid women’s athlete in the world, earning $21 million in endorsements alone in 2024, according to Sportico, even though she’s never been ranked No. 1 in the world. Nor has she ever been viewed like Caitlin Clark as a singular breakthrough figure taking her sport to new heights. You could even argue Gauff has been a bit  overvalued  relative to her lone Grand Slam title at the 2023 US Open. If the theory behind Gauff’s marketability and potential to transcend her sport in American culture was that she could succeed the throne of Serena Williams, it’s a bet that has not – and may never – come close to paying off.  And yet, shouldn’t it be a bigger deal that she’s going to play in yet another Grand Slam final on Saturday, trying to win the French Open at just 21 year...
Read more

Dan Evans admits rout by Novak Djokovic may be his Centre Court swansong

Image
Dan Evans walks off Centre Court following his straight-sets defeat - Reuters/Andrew Couldridge Britain’s Dan Evans conceded he may have had his Centre Court swansong after being overpowered by a flawless Novak Djokovic in the second round at Wimbledon. At 35, Evans faces a battle to stay relevant after tumbling down the rankings over the past year, but insists he still has more in the tank and indicated he will “make a plan” for the hard-court season. While he still has designs to compete at the top level – the British No 5 has signalled his intention to qualify for the US Open – during this straight-sets loss to Djokovic, he was aware that he might have graced Wimbledon’s hallowed court for the last time. Unlike his compatriot Oliver Tarvet, the 21-year-old who relished his match-up with reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz inside Wimbledon’s main arena earlier this week, Evans offered up a more measured reflection after his 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 defeat. “I appreciate the chance to play on Centr...
Read more