Despite the weather ups and downs to start the spring sports season, the Londonderry High School girls’ and boys’ tennis teams season got underway on Wednesday, April 9, with matches against the Spaulding High School Red Raiders.
The Lancer boys’ were on the road and the girls had their season home opener under the leadership of new head coach, Nikki Gauthier.
Gauthier took over this year from longtime coach Betty Wong-Mak, with the Lady Lancers winning the season opener 6-3 and the boys had a dominating performance with a 9-0 victory of the Raiders.
In Londonderry, senior Lancer, Ali Von Pichl, set the tone as the team’s number one starter and was able to come away with an 8-2 victory in her first match.
Fellow senior, Abby Jones, tallied an 8-4 win as the number two player on the squad.
Another senior, Riley Doyle, needed an extra set to give her team a 9-8 win as the number four player.
Sophomore Bianca Bettencourt doubled-up her opponent, with an 8-4 win in the number five spot and freshman Tess Goding won 8-1 in the six spot.
In Doubles, the team of Doyle and Bettencourt had an 8-2 win for the Lancers sixth point.
In the boys’ season opener, at Spaulding, Londonderry was able to sweep all their singles and doubles matches under the guidance of coach Alex Burbine.
Sophomore Neel Chakravarthy begins the season as the team’s number one starter and had an outstanding 8-0 start.
Senior Logan Hunt also topped his opponent 8-0 to begin his season.
In the third spot, senior Connor Lord continues the trend with the team’s third 8-0 victory.
Junior Jayden Wu contributed an 8-3 in the fourth spot and junior Tiege Broadhurst had an 8-2 in fifth.
In sixth, senior Evan Fortin made it perfect in single with an 8-0 win
In Doubles the team of Neel and Connor won 8-1; the Logan/Tiege team had an 8-2 win; and Jayden/Evan kept their opponent scoreless with an 8-0 victory.