Martlets Make Run at New Englands

The girls reached the finals of the season-ending New England tournament by winning two 

thrilling matches on day one. In both, the top of the ladder took care of business, as #1 Sophia Lazor ‘27 and #2 Elle WIlson ‘26 each won in three with surgical precision. Against Exeter, the first round of matches left the teams tied at 2-2, as Wilson’s win at #2 was followed up by Emily Fonner ‘26 at #4, who dropped a tight first game before winning in four. Anna Min ‘26, at #7, very nearly gave the Martlets a 3-1 lead for the first round of matches, but she ended up going down in five, sending the teams into the final 3 contests deadlocked at 2-2. Lazor made short work of it at #1, leaving the Black & Gold one win away from advancing. The glory would go to Sophia Wen ‘29 who eventually found herself on court with the teams tied at 3-3. Against a more experienced player, she won in a tight four-game match that included a heart-stopping 16-14 second game and an exciting 12-10 game to secure the win. 

The semis provided the girls a rematch against Dana Hall, to whom they had lost 4-3 at Nationals without Lazor at #1. The matchups were different this time at the top; having lost the top two matches in Philly, the pair of Lazor and Wilson took the top two on this day, both in decisive 3-0 fashion. The other five spots were as close as could be, with all five matches – all against the same opponents as a week earlier – going to five games and all featuring at least one game decided by the minimum possible margin of two points. In a remarkable turnaround, every one of the five matches flipped, with the losing player at Nationals coming out on top at New Englands. Min’s win was the tightest, as three of her games were decided by two points including her 11-9 win in the fifth. As fate would have it, Wen was the hero again, digging out from an 0-2 hole and prevailing thanks to twice coming out on top 12-10, including in the decisive game.

It was almost inevitable that the final would feel anticlimactic. Milton’s top two were essentially untouchable, although Lazor and Wilson landed a respectable number of blows in defeat. The #3 and 4 spots also presented formidable challenges; Wen and Fonner also went down without taking a game. Chase Hager ‘26 closed out her four-year varsity run with a brilliant burst in her first game before falling in four. The wins were claimed by Natasha Johnson ‘27, whose relentless defense wore her opponent down in her three-game win; and by Min, who absorbed a first-game loss before taking charge to win three straight.

To top off a great culminating weekend for the season, the girls were honored to be acknowledged by their tournament peers as the recipients of the team sportsmanship award, a recognition that came as a pleasant, but not unexpected, surprise to their coach, who enjoyed the company of this great group for the entire season.