Tourney bound boys tennis team tops Danvers

The Winthrop High boys tennis team prepped for its upcoming appearance in the state tournament with a big win over Danvers, 3-2, last Friday.

"This was an awesome victory for us," enthused WHS coach Barbara Hoffmann. "We traditionally do not beat Danvers and we lost to them 4-1 the first time we played them this season, so to beat them in the rematch was pretty amazing. It was a really exciting match and places us in position for a better seeding in the state tournament. I was really happy for the boys."

Brendan FitzPatrick, who had lost his first encounter at second singles with his Danvers rival in three sets, this time turned the tables and won his match in straight sets. "Brendan was behind by quite a bit in the first set, but then just turned it around for the win," noted Hoffmann.

Jake Rand easily won against his opponent at third singles, though Alex Hamilton came out on the short end of his match at first singles.

That left it up to the Viking doubles teams to earn a win in order to give Winthrop the match. The second doubles duo of Connor Brugman and Ryan McKinnon came through in their match to secure the "W’ for the Vikings. The first doubles tandem of Tyler Norris and Patrick Brogan went to three sets in a very close and long match, but fell short at the end.

Post season accolades for Hoffmann’s crew were announced last week and Rand was named to the NEC All-Star second team at third singles. Hamilton and FitzPatrick received Honorable Mention recognition.

The Vikings’ seeding and first round pairing had not been announced yesterday (Wednesday) by the MIAA as the Sun Transcript was going to press.