Lady Sachems Roll Into Finals

Paul Sughrue may have had a hint of concern following the match. But he knows, he’s used to the ending.

It’s been five years and 112 matches now since the Winchester coach has seen his girl’s. Seniors Abby Shewalter, Alex Criss, Katy McLeough, Stephanie Mundel and Natalie Collins have never boarded the bus back to Winchester trying to regroup from a defeat.

Sure, individually, they’ve had times when they've struggled. Concord-Carlisle’s Maddy King defeated Criss 6-0, 6-3 Friday. But no team in five years has been able to win the necessary three matches required to earn the victory.

And it happened again, as the top-seeded Sachems (18-0) defeated No. 5 Concord-Carlisle (12-4), 4-1.

Shewalter, who will be playing at Navy next year, won her match, defeating Julia Cancio, 6-1, 6-2, while sophomore Chloe Georgaklis secured victory over Howllie McBrider, 6-3, 6-1, in third singles.

“That was the key to the match,” Sughrue said of Georgaklis' victory. “If she didn’t win, I didn’t want to go into that last match tied.”

With the doubles team of Katy McKeough and Karen McKeough defeating Concord-Carlisle’s Stephanie Mundel and Natalie Collins, 6-4, 6-2; and Maddy Mangan and Sarah Wheeler holding on to beat Carly McCarthy and Francesca Gentile, 6-3, 7-5, the Sachems advanced to the finals of the MIAA tournament.

Winchester will travel to Woburn to play No. 2 Marblehead (16-1) on Saturday.

As for Concord-Carlisle, competing against Winchester is not an envious task.

“When you play them, you can’t focus on that streak,” said Concord-Carlisle Coach, Doc Furey. “You have to play aggressive, try to get some points and not make mistakes. When you’re playing a team like Winchester that has so much depth, you have to play your very best to have a chance at winning.”

But winning every match for the last half of the decade has also been a challenge for Winchester.

“It almost can work against us,” Sughrue said. “You never want to feel like you have to play not to lose, and with this streak, there’s some degree of added pressure. We haven’t lost in so long. The streak’s unbelievable, but we’re going to have to lose at some point. I’m just happy it wasn’t today.”