Bishop Brady’s Sydney Herrington and Manchester Central’s Julia Chappell were back at it on Thursday at The Derryfield School. The pair, which has played for the last three NHIAA singles titles, the latest on Wednesday, were vying for yet another tennis crown. And this time, they brought friends.
Herrington and Ravalika Damerla faced Chappell and Krysten Walker in the state doubles final, and Chappell and Walker defended their doubles title with a 6-2, 3-6, 10-5 win. Herrington had beaten Chappell on Wednesday for her second straight singles championship (Chappell beat Herrington in 2015 for the title).
The team from Bishop Brady reached the semifinals last year, and they made it past that round this spring with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Bishop Guertin’s Claire Robinson and Sara Schmitt. Herrington had beaten Robinson in the singles semifinals on Wednesday, 6-0, 6-0. And the Brady junior had also ended Schmitt’s singles season when she beat her, 8-1, in the quarterfinals.
But the Guertin duo rose to the occasion on Thursday and kept things close throughout the match, which was the longest of all four boys and girls’ semifinals being played at Derryfield. Robinson and Schmitt held a 4-3 lead in the first set and the two teams battled for control with the score tied at 4-4 before Brady broke Schmitt in a long deuce game.
Herrington then closed out the first set with her powerful lefty serve, and the Green Giants broke Robinson to take an early lead in the second set that they rode to the win.
In the other semifinal, Concord’s Becky Cistulli and Alex Killinger started slow, but they tested the defending champs from Central in the second set before falling, 6-2, 6-4. The Crimson Tide fell behind 3-0, then 5-1, but they switched formations late in the first set and the change brought Concord’s net game to life.
The Concord seniors stayed close to Chappell and Walker for the entire second set and they had several game points on Cistulli’s serve to take a 5-4 lead in the set, but in the end they couldn’t convert.
On the boys’ side, Winnacunnet’s Dylan Taylor and Dimitiri Minchello won the title with a 6-4, 7-5 win in the finals over Exeter’s Cam Maher and Tucker Guen.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)