Nauset Girls Tennis Earns Sweep Against Barnstable

NORTH EASTHAM – It was the windiest day yet at the Nauset courts this year for the girls tennis team Monday. It didn’t matter.

The Warriors handled Barnstable 5-0, spinning balls low and hard so as to defeat both their opponents in red and white and their invisible adversary of sturdy tendrils of air. Winds blew at 21 miles per hour southwest across Nauset’s five courts, gusting up to 37 miles per hour. 

“You might think you have to play easier, but you really can't,” head coach Kathleen Tringale said. “You have to even play more forcefully, because the wind is just going to take the ball. You put that ball up, you're done for. You cannot do the lofty lobs. It's going to go everywhere.”

Nauset senior Anjali O’Brien won 6-4, 6-1 at first singles, eighth grader Samantha Gomez won 6-0, 6-0 at second singles and sophomore Sophia Votteler won 6-4, 6-2 at third singles. Seniors Haley Jackson and Callie Murphy won 7-6 (7-0), 6-3 at first doubles, and senior Olivia Vining and freshman Daniela Chianciola won 6-2, 6-0 at second doubles. 

The win snapped a two-match skid for the Warriors (4-6), who had most recently fallen 3-2 to Falmouth and 4-1 to Monomoy (both top-10 ranked teams in Division 3). Jackson and Murphy had picked up Nauset’s lone win against Monomoy. The match Monday was also Nauset’s second 5-0 sweep of the year against Barnstable and their third overall.

The four seniors in Nauset’s lineup of seven are all captains. Three of the four have played together since freshman year; all four have played together since sophomore year.

“This works,” Tringale said. “They're great together. They enjoy each other. They've been together for all these years, and it was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not just picking one. We’re going with everybody.’”

O’Brien has slotted into first singles for the second season in a row (she played second singles as a sophomore). Tringale said she was “tenacious,” a strategist who doesn’t get upset during matches.

“She has such grit,” Tringale said. “She never quits.”

Playing on the court next to O’Brien has been Gomez, with five grades separating the two players at the front end of the Warriors lineup. Gomez, needless to say, has been a key add to the team, “a force to be reckoned with” with a positive attitude, according to Tringale.

“She's introspective,” Tringale said. “She does think about her game.”

The mix of younger and older from top to bottom has the Warriors in a good spot amid a challenging league. In addition to No. 10 Falmouth and No. 4 Monomoy, undefeated Martha’s Vineyard — Division 3’s first-ranked team — is a Cape and Islands League Atlantic Division foe (for state tournament purposes, Nauset plays in Division 2, where they’re ranked 20th).

“What's really nice about coaching these girls, is they do listen in games and in practice times, they're really working hard and trying to improve, and they're very coachable and respectful,” Tringale said.