BY SAPNA PATHAK
For some squads, the year’s first win is the beginning of a championship run. For others, it provides much-needed confidence to erase a prior season’s struggles.
On Friday, April 20, the girls of Concord High tennis breathed a collective sigh of relief when they captured their first victory of the 2007 campaign.
Oh, yeah – it just happened to come over the defending Class L champion.
Hosting West, the Crimson Tide looked good in a 6-3 victory.
Junior Maria Rouvalis led the way, taking a 6-3 win over Samantha Jean in the No. 1 singles match. No. 3 Rosie Laflam played Kirsten Jean to a tie, then easily took the tiebreaker, 7-1.
Laura Reynolds prevailed over Liz Mahler, 8-3, and Becky Kearney added another singles win with an 8-4 showing against Mallika Prabhakar.
Junior Elizabeth Cassidy and Rouvalis took down Kirsten Jean and Sam Jean, 8-6, in the No. 1 doubles match. The Laflam-Reynolds duo beat Kayla Denoncourt and Prabhakar, 8-6, to round out Concord’s wins.
For the Blue Knights, victories went to No. 2 player Denoncourt, who defeated Cassidy, 8-2, and Ali Shakra, who edged Emily Mulligan, 8-6. Mahler and Shakra teamed up for an 8-3 win over Mulligan and Hayley Breton.
“We lost to West in the playoffs, and they went on to win the championship,” said Crimson Tide head coach Joe Proulx. “If we can stay strong against those teams we know are going to give us a run for the money, I’d like a season like that. We lost some seniors but had some players ready to move up, so we should be ready to go anytime.”
Before their first win, the Crimson Tide faced another Class L power, Bishop Guertin of Nashua. The Cardinals came out with a 9-0 win. Against Keene, Concord took control in a 9-0 win for a 2-1 record as of April 23.
During the offseason, Proulx followed the tactic of previous boys head coach Harvey Smith, who spent significant time developing younger players during summer. This past summer, Proulx worked with current boys mentor Dave Page to do the same.
“Mr. Smith found a way to coach younger players, and it really helped Concord boys tennis for a few generations,” said Proulx. “We’d like to get that consistency of being a strong program on the girls side, too. We’re working on it, we’re getting there.”
Now in his fourth year at the helm, Proulx’s crews have improved each year, finishing 6-8 his first season, 8-6 in his second campaign and 10-4 last season. Making postseason appearances the last two years has given Concord’s now upperclassmen the experience needed for another playoff run.
“We don’t have a ringer who’s going to dominate across the board in Class L,” said Proulx. “But that means we have a lot of interchangeable parts, and it’s nice to be able to shift things around if we need to.”
Concord faces another Queen City club on Friday, April 27, when it hosts Manchester Memorial.