Stratford Academy issued the following announcement on Apr. 14.
Stratford girls captured second place in the Region Championship. After falling to Deerfield 3-2 in the regular season then upsetting FPD 3-2 the next day, our girls entered the Region Championship seeded third as FPD and Deerfield grabbed the top two spots in the three-way tie by virtue of the tiebreaker rules.
In the semifinals, Stratford faced Deerfield, knowing we needed to turn one of our three losses two weeks prior into a win. Hadley Cullars and Shreya Ranabhotu made quick work of their number two doubles match, securing our first point with a 6-2, 6-0 score. Esha Panse fell to Deerfield’s number one singles, and we were tied at 1-1. Cate Eddlemon and Ellie Fitzgibbons grabbed our second point at number one doubles with a 7-5, 6-4 win, putting Stratford up 2-1. Edie Sharpton was down a set and trailing in the second set at number two while Shorter McCook was ahead by a set but seeing the second set slip away at number three singles. Edie grinds out the second set while Shorter comes up short in her second set. Both matches went into a third set match-tiebreaker, and we needed one of them to win to secure our spot in the finals. Edie did just that, taking her match 4-6, 7-5, 10-2 to clinch for the Eagles and avenge her loss to the same player just 15 days prior. Shorter was tight in her tie-breaker, but the match was suspended as it is done after a clinch.
In the finals, FPD’s singles were just too much for the Eagles with FPD grabbing all three to take the title. Stratford was ahead in both doubles matches when FPD clinched.
Five of our girls made the All-Region Team as voted on by the coaches: Edie Sharpton, Cate Eddlemon, Ellie Fitzgibbons, Hadley Cullars, and Shreya Ranabhotu. Our doubles teams were undefeated in Region play!
Stratford girls will host Savannah Christian on Tuesday, April 19, at 2:00 pm in the first round of the state tournament.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Stratford Academy
