Sacred Heart tennis posts breakthrough season

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The Sacred Heart tennis team poses for a photo after winning the FAA championship. From left is coach Julieta DiPaola, Juliette Guice, Kensi Almeida, Cori Gabaldon, Jackie Urbinati, Brooke Wilkens and head coach Anne Fraser.
The Sacred Heart tennis team poses for a photo after winning the FAA championship. From left is coach Julieta DiPaola, Juliette Guice, Kensi Almeida, Cori Gabaldon, Jackie Urbinati, Brooke Wilkens and head coach Anne Fraser.

The Convent of the Sacred Heart varsity tennis team served up an ace of a season this spring, remaining undefeated and winning the Fairchester Athletic Association (FAA) tournament.

Under the guidance of Head Coach Anne Fraser and Assistant Coach Julieta DiPaola, Sacred Heart went 14-0 in the regular season.

Overall the team finished 15-1, with its only loss in the New England Tournament against Deerfield Academy, 5-4 Sacred Heart capped off their perfect regular-season with a title and aced the FAA tournament with dominate performances in both singles and doubles competition.

At the FAA tourney, senior Jackie Urbinati and junior Madison Miles played singles while senior Cori Gabaldon and junior Brooke Wilkens, junior Kensi Almeida and sophomore Juliette Guice dueled in doubles. Varsity tennis blanked rivals, 7-0, in five of their six FAA league matches.

School of the Holy Child from Rye, N.Y., finished second in the FAAs, while Greenwich Academy claimed third place. Last year, CSH finished second in the FAAs behind Westport’s Greens Farms Academy. The Tigers’ last regular season match kept them on their toes.

Playing the also-undefeated Hopkins School team, Sacred Heart won in the last few minutes of the match, when the Urbinati and Gabaldon, the No. 1 and No. 5 singles players respectively, won in tie-breakers, giving Sacred Heart a 5-4 win.

Coach Fraser noted that much of the team’s strength this year came from singles players, and practice time was spent ensuring the doubles teams’ success.

“We knew that in order to really clinch the FAA championship, we needed to make sure that we won at least two out of our three doubles matches in every match we played,” Fraser said. “We worked really hard at finding compatible doubles partners and at implementing winning doubles strategy.”

Fraser added that during practices, the singles players would practice in doubles in order to develop new skill sets and improve team play. Doubles teams included teams of Wilkens and Gabaldon, Almeida and Guice, along with senior Claren Hesburgh and freshman Nathalie Perreault. Next year, the Tigers will lose many of its most experienced players.

“We lost four strong seniors, three of whom were great singles players, winning the majority of their matches (Jackie Urbinati winning every single one of her matches at No. 1), and one of whom was a really experienced and strong doubles player,” Fraser said.

Urbinati, who was a member of Sacred Heart’s varsity tennis team as an eighth-grader, a sophomore and a senior, was the school’s No. 1 player. Urbinati never lost a match during her tenure at CSH.

“My goals for the season were to be undefeated, a good team leader, support my team, and have fun,” Urbinati said. “The team’s biggest strengths are supporting one another and working as hard as they can for the team.”

Urbinati conquered FAA singles with a 3-0 record in the tournament. Also dominant was the doubles team of Gabaldon and Wilkens, who were undefeated in the regular season and the FAA tournament.

While the senior standouts consisted of Urbinati, Gabaldon, Maddie Church and Hesburgh, younger players tallied great wins for the team, too. Co-captains for the 2016 season, juniors Miles and Wilkens, were both superior in the FAA tourney. Jackie Beshoory, a sophomore, also showed her talent throughout the season.

Her play at Millbrook at No. 2 singles earned her special recognition from her teammates and coaches. Beshoory remained undefeated this season in all of her singles matches as the No. 4 seed for CSH singles.

In addition to dedication to practice time, the tennis team spent time together to learn each player’s strengths and weaknesses, according to co-captain Miles.

“A big reason we were so successful in past years was because of how close all of the girls were, so we knew how necessary it would be to have a close bond,” Miles said. “We never thought we could be undefeated in the FAA league, and after each match we just got more and more confidence.”

Fraser also appreciated the team members’ abilities to support and care for one another: “There was a lot of positive, unselfish energy, which really helped us pull through tough matches and difficult situations during the season.”

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