Wayland tennis advances to MIAA finals

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Above is senior Sydney Hsu in a match. Both the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams have advanced to the MIAA State Finals on Wednesday.

Conor Keating

The Wayland High School varsity boys’ and girls’ tennis teams both recently claimed the Division II North Section for the state of Massachusetts. With these victories, both teams will move on to play on June 14th in the state finals at 2:50 p.m. in Shrewsbury. The boys’ team is set up to take on Sharon tomorrow while the girls’ team is scheduled to play Hingham.

With both teams making the state finals, it would seem inappropriate to not highlight the rarity of this occurrence. In the last five years, both teams have presented skill and success, with the boys’ team bringing home multiple state championships in 2012, 2014 and 2015 and the girls’ tennis team losing in the State Finals only last year. However, never before in recent memory have both teams been in the running for a state title simultaneously.

“I think this is the first time that both teams have been in it,” sophomore player William Barton said. “I know last year the girls had a good run, but we weren’t that great and then a few years ago when we had our run, the girls weren’t as good.”

Both teams have had very successful seasons so far this year. The boys’ team finished their regular season with a 13-2 record, topped by a 3-2 victory over Acton-Boxborough on May 25th. The girls’ team has seen similar success so far this year, having accumulated an impressive 14-1 record having only lost to Newton South during their first match of the year. The highlight game of the girls’ team’s season was their victory over Concord-Carlisle during the regular season.

With this in mind, it should be very exciting to see how Wayland will perform in the spotlight of the state championship. Both Sharon and Hingham have remained undefeated. With these two opponents going up against both of our Wayland squads, perhaps the Wayland tennis program might be able to make history and bring home two state championships for the same sport.