Martlets Defeat Williston

The Martlets beat the rain (mostly) in their win against Williston. Knowing the rain was coming but not knowing exactly when, the team knew they needed to come out fast. The Martlets did just that and came out strong to quickly take the doubles point. Noah Maltby ‘28 and Will Henry ‘28 did just that, dropping only one game in their match at #2 doubles. Liam Hibbard ‘27 and Finn Hocking ‘26 dropped only two games in their match at #1 doubles, and both of them were tight games. Alex Brown ‘27 and jack Pickett ‘26 continued their strong form at #3 doubles, and after a few tight games in the middle pulled ahead for the 8-4 win to help us sweep the doubles point. In exhibition matches, Crosby Cutler ‘27 and Xavier Kahn ‘27 had a few patchy moments, but held onto their lead for the 8-5 win. Daniel Frid ‘27 played a hard hitting opponent but wore him down with his usual consistent style of play for the 8-3 win. Archie Downing ‘29 and his opponent were very well matched, with Archie pulling out a win in a breaker. Moving into singles, Liam Hibbard ‘27 quickly got the team a point with his 6-0;6-1 win at #1 singles. Jack Pickett ‘26 played a great match at #6 singles, matching big serves with good consistency on his groundstrokes in his 6-2;6-3 win. Alex Brown ‘27 played a hard hitting opponent, but wore him down with his traditional consistent and gritty play for a 6-2;6-2 win at #2 singles to seal the win for the Martlets. Noah Maltby ‘28 soon followed with a 6-4;6-1 win at #5. After a tight first set, Noah became more consistent and took the second set quickly. Finn Hocking ‘26 played a solid competitor at #3 singles. After a slow start, Finn battled back and took the first 6-3. His consistency and determination made this a great matchup, and Finn willed his way to victory for the 6-3;6-2 win right before the rain came. Finally, Will Henry ‘26 was well on his way to win at #4 singles when it became a little too wet to continue. Will had won 6 games in a row to win the first 6-3. While Will was ahead 5-2 in the second, the coaches agreed that it was starting to rain and to pull the match if the match went to 5-3. That happened, so Will’s match ended with the score of 6-3;5-3. Grit and Grace award goes to Hibbard for his class while playing an opponent who did not have the same tennis experience as him. He played with class, was respectful of his opponent and remained focused. The whole team did a nice job remaining focused and playing with class. The Martlets are gearing up for another 3 match week, that begins Monday at KO in what should be one of our most competitive matches of the season!