Martlets Fall to Winged Beavers

In a match delayed by about 24 hours due to weather, the Martlets began what was bound to be a competitive match against Avon Old Farms. The Martlets started slowly and dropped the doubles point, losing all 3 matches. Crosby Cutler ‘27 and Xavier Kahn ‘27 were up early but could not hold the momentum in their 8-3 loss at #3 doubles. Noah Maltby ‘28 and Will Henry ‘26 went down 1-4 at #2 doubles, but got some momentum at the end in their competitive 8-4 loss. Finally, after a 0-5 start, Liam Hibbard ‘27 and Alex Brown ‘27 played some tough tennis and were a deuce point away from being back on serve in two occasions, they finally fell in a very competitive 5-8 encounter. Moving into singles, the Martlets knew they could take their chances in many matchups and potentially pull out victories. Archie Downing ‘29 made his singles debut at #6 singles, but fell to a more consistent and aggressive opponent 6-1;6-1. Noah Maltby ‘28 and Daniel Frid ‘27 both looked on course to level the overall match at 2-2, but both fell in tiebreakers. Noah won the first set 6-2, but dropped the second set 1-6 before losing a competitive breaker 10-7 (2-6;6-1;10-6). Daniel took his first set 6-1 and looked on course to make a comeback from 1-5 down in the second, but his opponent dug in to take it 6-4. Frid led early on in the breaker, but could not hold onto the lead in a 10-7 loss (1-6;6-4;10-7). These two competitive matches resulted in wins for AOF, sealing the overall win for them. Liam Hibbard ‘27 played a very clean match at #1 singles in a 6-2;6-2 win. The final two matches were called early, with tight second sets after Avon took the first. Will Henry ‘26 led early and battled through several long games in his first set, which his opponent eventually won 6-4. Two exchanges of breaks saw the set tied at 2-2 when the match was pulled. Alex Brown ‘27 lost his first set 6-1, but made some good adjustments to get ahead 4-1 in the second. His opponent prepared for a comeback which saw him take the next 4 games and serve for the match. Alex was not to be defeated at that point, and broke back before the match was pulled at 5-5. Despite many matches that could have gone the other way, the Martlets put up a strong overall effort against a good Avon team. We look to get back on track tomorrow when Loomis makes the trip in advance of the SNETL team tournament this weekend.