The Bromfield girls tennis team—undefeated (13-0) during the regular season and in last week’s Central Mass. playoffs—narrowly lost to Whitinsville Christian (14-2) Monday 3-2 in a grueling four-hour MIAA Central Division 3 semifinal on its home courts. Team captain senior Leimalia Tratnyek emerged undefeated, however, to maintain her perfect record for the year.
Holly Fisher watches as her doubles partner Sophia Zhou poaches the ball at the net. The pair won their second doubles match in straight sets. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
The June 21 match brought the two rivals together for a second time in less than a week. Last Wednesday, Bromfield beat Whitinsville 4-1 to win the Central Mass. Division 3 championship. But this week was a different story. While the lineups of both teams were identical, the outcomes were not. Bromfield’s second doubles team of Sophia Zhou and Holly Fisher held its own, easily defeating Maggie Redding and Georgia West of Whitinsville. But this time Bromfield’s third singles player Klara Tatarev lost her rematch with Scarlett Shaw, and in the second singles match, Whitinsville’s Ally Weedon once again defeated Bromfield’s Abigail Ames in two sets, leaving Whitinsville ahead of Bromfield by one match, 2-1.
Temperatures soared to above 80°F with oppressively high humidity. A few scattered clouds provided occasional relief from the sun as coaches doled out water and ice to their players. Spectators found shade where they could. Players made liberal use of insect repellent to battle bugs. Bromfield coach Chris Holmes had already warned players and spectators to check for ticks when they got home.
As evening approached, all eyes turned to the first singles match between Tratnyek and Hope Brookhouse, which had begun at 4 p.m. and was still underway three hours later. The players were tied at two sets apiece and battling to win the decisive third.
Senior Leimalia Tratnyek rushes the net. She won her match in three sets and finished undefeated for the season.
Tratnyek and Brookhouse are baseline players, and the consistency of their play sustained lengthy rallies of 20 or more shots. But Tratnyek proved the more consistent of the two. After narrowly losing the first set 5-7, she rebounded to win the second 6-1. Ahead by one game 3-2 in the final set, she proceeded to win the next three, breaking Brookhouse’s service twice and winning the final point on an unforced error by Brookhouse—a return into the net—that ended a 40-shot rally. The time was 7:15 p.m.
Tratnyek said she could tell Brookhouse was getting tired. Coach Holmes advised her to “start moving Brookhouse around,” doing more angle shots to force her to run or move to the ball. “I started doing that and I could definitely see a shift in her game.”
Anyone’s game
Tratnyek said she was never rattled. “I have the mindset when I get on the court that it’s still anyone’s game. So even though I had lost the first set … I knew that there were two more sets that I had the chance to win.” She added, “I don’t let my emotions get the better of me … I make each point ‘the point’ and try to get the upper hand whenever I can.”
Tratnyek’s win tied Bromfield and Whitinsville at 2-2, leaving the final outcome in the hands of the first doubles team of Sarah Burns and Cassidy Fisher in their rematch with Karlee Buurma and Lauren Airey. “The difference between the two doubles teams was razor thin with the [Whitinsville] girls prevailing by a scant two points by winning the third set tiebreaker 7-5,” noted Holmes. That final match, held until a court became available, did not end until after 8 p.m.
For Tratnyek, who won all 12 of her matches this season, it was the end of a perfect year. She is headed to the University of California San Diego this fall, where she intends to continue playing tennis.
“We will miss having Leimalia at the top of the lineup,” Holmes told the Press. She joined the team as an eighth-grader, he said, and played second singles and occasionally first singles “right off the bat.” She has played first singles every year since her freshman year at Bromfield. “While there will, unfortunately, not be an individual Central Mass. tournament this year, she pretty clearly established herself as one of the top four female tennis players in Central Mass. this spring,” Holmes added.
Tratnyek, who captained her team this season, has high praise for her teammates. “They’re just really, really talented,” she said. It’s a young team, with two eighth-graders and one ninth-grader in the starting lineup, often facing players who are much older. Until this week, the team was undefeated. “I’m really excited to see what they’re going to do in the future,” she added.
Holmes said he was looking forward to the 2021–22 season as well. “It was great to be back on the courts after missing all of last season,” he said. “This year we had a lot of new faces, and a lot of young faces. We are well positioned to be very competitive for the next several years.”
Results
- First singles: Leimalia Tratnyek (B) defeated Hope Brookhouse, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2
- Second singles: Ally Weedon (WC) def. Abigail Ames, 6-0, 6-1
- Third singles: Scarlett Shaw (WC) def. Klara Tatarev, 6-1, 7-5
- First doubles: Karlee Buurma and Lauren Airey (WC) def. Sarah Burns and Cassidy Fisher, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
- Second doubles: Sophia Zhou and Holly Fisher (B) def. Maggie Redding and Georgia West, 6-1, 6-0
