Through long matches in the blazing heat, girls’ tennis lost to the defending State Champion Acton-Boxborough 4-1 in the state finals match on June 19 at St. John’s High School.

While the talent between opponents was roughly the same, Acton-Boxborough was able to get a leg up on Algonquin because they exploited Algonquin’s nerves, allowing them to reclaim their title as State Champions.

Senior captain Darby Kim, who got Algonquin’s only win at second singles in a 10-2 tiebreaker after two sets, believes that her teammates’ support helped her overcome her nerves and opponent.

“In the beginning of the match I was pretty nervous, but I knew my skill set and I knew I could beat her if I just put the nerves aside,” Kim said.  “Luckily I had incredible friends and teammates cheering me on which really calmed my nerves and allowed me to pull through.”

Kim went the whole season undefeated.  

Freshman Olivia Almy’s match in first singles also came down to the wire, but she eventually had to forfeit due to an injury. 

 “I started cramping at 4-4 in the second set which made it hard to keep moving and jumping to balls,” Almy said.  “During the last couple games in the set, I just tried to hit a winner as quick as possible so I didn’t have to keep playing long points.”

According to Almy, she wanted to play the tiebreaker, but Doyle and her dad both thought it was best to forfeit to not risk further injury. 

Another factor that played into making this a difficult match was the last minute lineup change that affected the opponents for junior Ruchitha Rajaghatta who was in third singles, who lost 2-0, and the first doubles team of senior captain Elaine Cho and sophomore Yasmin Lee, who also lost 2-0 in two extremely tight sets that were affected by the new nerves placed on them through not knowing anything about their opponent. 

“Our match was very challenging, but I thought we both played the best that we could and gave it our all,” Cho said. “Matches like those are the most difficult, but also the most fun to play.”

Despite the loss, Doyle believes the team will be just as strong next year.

“We have a lot of returning players and we have a lot of players coming up next year to be on the team, so I’m optimistic that we’ll hopefully make another run for [winning the State title],” Doyle said.