Sports Roundup: Girls Tennis Team 'Best Ever' at Winchester

Winchester girls tennis coach Paul Sughrue, who has been around the tennis program for 35 years, said that first singles player Abby Shewalter, who is headed to the Naval Academy, is arguably the best Sachems player ever.

Alex Criss, who will play for Trinity next season, was the rare college-level player who played second singles for her high school.

The No. 1 doubles team of senior Katy McKeough and her sophomore sister Karen won a state title in the individual doubles tournament.

Then there's No. 3 singles player Chloe Georgaklis, a sophomore, and the No. 2 doubles team of senior Maddy Mangan and junior Sara Wheler — all of whom went undefeated this season.

"I'm pretty familiar with the history of the girls teams and I said to my team after we won our last match, that with the lineup we had, they just might be the best team ever to play for ," Sughrue said.

The Sachems (22-0) extended their five-year unbeaten streak to 114 games and won their fifth straight state title this season. They won every match by at least a 4-1 score, and even beat a team 5-0 without dropping a single game — a sign of how focused the Sachems were.

A regular-season highlight came when the to earn its 100th straight victory — a streak that began before any of the current players even entered high school. The team dropped just eight games in the match.

Winchester earned the top seed in the Division 2 North tournament and started its . It then in the semifinals and in the sectional final. Shewalter actually lost a rare match against Marblehead and Georgaklis was taken to three sets, but Criss won handily and the doubles teams clinched the victory.

"The doubles teams in that match played probably their best matches of the year," Sughrue said.

The Sachems made in the state final, winning every set in a 5-0 victory that ensured the senior class of Shewalter, Criss, Mangan and Katy McKeough would end their careers undefeated.

“I can confidently say that we’ve never had a more talented senior class than the one we have now,” Sughrue said. “92-0 for their careers, pretty unbelievable.”

The McKeoughs also won the MIAA individual doubles championship last weekend at Clark University, dropping just four games in both the semifinals against a team from Ursuline and in the finals against a pair from Algonquin.

"That was icing on the cake," Sughrue said. "All in all I couldn't have asked for a better year for the team."