In a battle of two teams at opposite ends of the Class I girls tennis spectrum, Bow cruised past Pembroke Academy on Friday, May 15, as both teams wind down the regular season.

The Falcons earned a 9-0 home victory over the Spartans to improve to 9-3, while Pembroke dropped to 3-8.

Bow begins preparations for the postseason. Despite their strong record, the Falcons currently find themselves seventh in the standings with two matches remaining.

Bow lost a combined seven games during the six matches of singles play, beginning with Kate Torres’ 8-3 victory over Lindsay Crete at No. 1.

Mariah Leven at No. 2 and Steph Malanga at No. 6 each earned 8-0 decisions over their PA opponents, while Hayley Maccani and Pooja Kasireddy both won by 8-1 scores.

Emma Mulvaney rounded out the six singles victories by besting Megan Bobola, 8-2, at No. 4.

“One thing we were able to do was keep the ball in play and work on things that we had eyed individually,” said Bow head coach Jean Ver- Planck. “It was about coming in with a plan and then being sure of the execution.”

VerPlanck said she has been particularly impressed by Kasireddy’s improvement. The mentor said she has developed all of her strokes and must now focus on hitting them with consistency.

Pembroke head coach Steve Langevin said his team was focused on keeping the correct mindset entering the match.

“Each game they win they take as a victory,” he said. “They’re not necessarily trying to win the whole match, just taking it individually a game at a time. That’s the approach, instead of being discouraged by being beaten by a better team.”

Crete and No. 2 singles player Steph Allen are the only two seniors in the rotation for the Spartans. No. 3 Sarah Kelly is a sophomore, Bobola is a junior, and the other two players in the lineup, Hillary Dennison and Kendra Rainville, are freshmen.

Rainville began the season on the outside of the lineup looking in, but worked her way onto the ladder and won the first varsity match she played. The Falcons’ three losses have come against teams seeded ahead of them, twice to Bishop Brady and once to Hanover.

VerPlanck said she hopes to prepare her team for the tournament by having them match up against players they normally don’t face in practice, as well as squaring off in matches against members of the boys team.

“We’ll really need to step it up,” said VerPlanck. “That starts next week, before the tournament gets under way.”