Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on May 25, 2015
WILBRAHAM — Amherst Regional junior Allison McCann isn’t a stranger to the Western Massachusetts individual girls tennis final, but the three-time championship qualifier finally came out on top with a quick 6-1, 6-1 victory over Minnechaug’s Haley Gurski Sunday at Minnechaug.
“It was nice not having to play my sister in the finals. It feels really good to win,” said McCann, who lost to her former teammate and older sister, Nicole, the last two years.
McCann advances to the state tournament, where she will play Sarah Campbell of Lincoln-Sudbury, the North champion, at St. John’s Prep of Shrewsbury on June 20.
Gurski and McCann had met twice during the regular season in league play and the Hurricane is now 3-0 against the freshman Gurski. Despite the short win, the two consistently rallied until McCann forced an error or found a winner.
“Haley is a really good player, she gets a lot of balls back,” McCann said. “She hits it deep and with a lot of spin, so I just tried to focus on keeping it deep and moving her around, and trying to come in and do as much as I could to move her back and forth.”
Amherst co-coach and the winner’s mother, Gloria McCann, said the two regular-season victories were a key to success Sunday.
“It’s always an advantage, to both players, when you’re more familiar with their game,” Gloria McCann said. “I think it helped that she’d beaten her twice, just confidence wise. It’s nerve-racking. Western Mass. is nerve-racking.”
Allison and Gloria McCann wanted the Hurricane to play aggressively in the match, knowing Gurski’s quickness and ability to return shots.
“Allison was a little bit more aggressive coming to the net, so that was good,” Gloria McCann said. “Any ball that was floating or any short balls, she came in and tried to put it away and be more aggressive. A lot of times, she plays a more defensive game. I like when she picks it up a notch and switches to that mode.”
Allison McCann breezed to a first set 6-1 win in roughly 30 minutes. She opened the second by holding serve and winning out of deuce. A backhand winner down the line put the Hurricane up 3-0. McCann followed with a cross-court volley to break Gurski’s serve.
“I’ve been trying to play more aggressively, come in more, take more volleys,” Allison McCann said. “I think I did that. I came into net a lot and hit a lot of volleys.”
With a comfortable lead, McCann’s serve started to cause an issue. She said she is in the process of reworking on her serve, causing it to be off occasionally. McCann double faulted to give Gurski just her second game of the match. She bounced back to set up match point. Another double fault put McCann down 15-30, but she rallied and used a forehand down the line to cap the match and title.
“At the end of the second set, I missed a couple first serves and then I double faulted,” Allison McCann said. “It was fine, I just had to focus on spinning it.”
With the win, Allison McCann’s focus turned to the team tournament. The draw is released on June 2 and play opens on June 4. The Hurricanes are the defending Western Massachusetts champions.
“I’m really excited,” Allison McCann said. “Our doubles, both did really well (in the individual tournament). … I think this is a good experience for playoffs and we’ve been playing really well.”
McCann beat Northampton’s Phoebe Gelbard 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the championship. Gurski defeated Belchertown’s Meghan Bernard 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals.
Doubles championship
For the second year in a row, Amherst’s Kailey Tobin and Veronica Suchodolski fell in the doubles final. In a heartbreaking marathon match that ended in a tiebreaker for the third set, the Hurricanes fell to Minnechaug duo Katie Weyant and Sabrina Raffaelle, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (9).
“I don’t think we’ve played better together,” Suchodolski said. “It sucks to lose but it’s nice to know that we lost with dignity. We didn’t give it to them.”
Similar to the singles final, it was the third meeting of the season between the two sides, but the Falcons team is 3-0 after Saturday’s championship.
“I don’t like tiebreaks. I think they are tough. I think that they can go either way often and this was a great example of it,” Gloria McCann said. “It’s always very disappointing to lose in a tiebreaker, but they played their hearts out. They played really, really well. They couldn’t have played any better.”
Tobin and Suchodolski fought back in the second set after getting down early. A couple well placed winners put them ahead 3-2 in the second set, but Minnechaug broke serve for 3-3 and 4-4 ties. Amherst returned the favor with a break of its own and Tobin held serve to force a third set.
“We were trying to stay focused and trying to keep them on their toes, trying to just play really, really well and push it out,” Tobin said. “The wind was a little tricky. It started to pick up in the second set. It seemed to blow in all directions.”
Each side held serve to open the third set until Amherst broke for a 2-1 lead. Minnechaug fought back for two games. The Hurricanes returned the favor as they held on Suchodolski’s serve and Weyant double faulted for the break.
“We left like we had nothing to lose,” Suchodolski said. “I think they had a lot more of the pressure being the No. 1 seed and having lost the second set after winning the first. We just tried to go in and hit the ball.”
From a 4-3 lead on, the Hurricanes struggled to hold their serve but used break points. Minnechaug won a long rally to pull to 6-6 in the third set and force the tiebreaker.
“It’s always nice to win a game no matter who is serving,” Suchodolski said. “I think we had a little more confidence when we didn’t have to serve and worry about whether or not it’s going in.”
Set to play a seven-point, win by two tiebreaker, they pushed the limits of the score cards needing 20 points to settle the championship. The Falcons took a 3-1 lead after Suchodolski double faulted twice. A wide shot by Minnechaug pulled Amherst to a 3-3 tie. Two long balls by the Falcons gave Amherst its first lead of the tiebreaker at 6-5. The Hurricanes didn’t trail until the final point, as a double fault gave the advantage back to Minnechuag, 10-9. A shot down the alley out of Tobin’s reach sealed the win.
“They are great competition,” Tobin said. “It was a very well-played match.”