SOUTH HADLEY — By the time Kaylin Cousineau won the second set of her match Monday, South Hadley had already secured the victory.
On the three courts to her left, the Tigers had taken care of business against Mount Greylock to book their place in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 final against Lee. But that didn’t matter to Cousineau at No. 2 singles or to No. 1 singles player Hailey Werenski as they battled at Mount Holyoke.
Both players were engaged in tense three-set wars that weren’t important to Monday’s result, but were critical for setting the tone for Tuesday. As the pair closed out 10-point tiebreakers within minutes of each other, the confidence from those wins could not be understated as South Hadley turned its attention to exacting revenge on Lee at Forest Park, 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
“(Tuesday), it’s going to be the same thing as my No. 1 and No. 2 did (Monday),” coach Eric Cestero said. “The whole thing is going to be all mental. It’s 99 percent mental and one percent physical, and the mental part is what I call focus. Both of them on the tiebreakers, they were both very focused, they knew where to put the ball. They took the advantage from the other players by working them mentally.”
Cousineau and Werenski showcased different types of mental fortitude in their victories. Cousineau lost a tight first set 6-4 to Hannah Gilooly and had just taken control of the second set when South Hadley (17-2) secured its third point. She finished off the second set 6-3 then broke open the super tiebreaker with an ace at 4-4 to take the match 10-7.
Meanwhile, Werenski had to bounce back from a disappointing chain of events to win her match. After holding serve to open the first set, she and Mia VanDeurzen continued to break one another until the South Hadley junior won the opening set 6-4. Werenski then broke VanDeurzen late in the second set to take a 5-3 lead and served for the match.
VanDeurzen won the final four games of the set to force a super tiebreaker, which Werenski won 10-1 to complete the shutout.
Their teammates were as boisterous as they could be as the duo closed out their matches, but even they took some confidence from the perseverance Cousineau and Werenski showed.
“The best thing we can do is to watch them and be there,” senior Aislinn Ford said. “Both of them don’t like it when we cheer … but as long as we’re there and they can see us, the best thing we can do is support them and by winning (the other three matches), it took a little bit of pressure off them.”
As is normally the case for South Hadley this season, it was the top doubles pair of Bella Earle and Ford, who got the ball rolling for the Tigers. The duo looked to be in a tight match early, trailing 2-1 and down 40-15 in the fourth game. But the Tigers pair rallied to win that game then cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 win.
It’s the type of tone-setting victory that South Hadley has come to rely upon from its No. 1 doubles duo, and an opportunity the two seniors have come to relish in bigger moments.
“We knew we had an upper hand with that team, not that they’re a bad team,” Ford said. “We knew we could beat them and we just switched our brain. Usually (we have that moment) where it’s like ‘this is it, we’re starting now, we’re going to get good now’ and that’s what happened.”
Madde La Costa returned to the lineup for the Tigers and outlasted Charlotte Sanford, 6-3, 6-1 in a No. 3 singles match that featured numerous long rallies that fell in La Costa’s favor.
On the No. 2 doubles court, Allison Descheneaux and Julia Pratt ran into some early trouble, winning back-to-back must-win games to force a first-set tiebreak. Yet the duo won the breaker 7-3 then cruised in the second set 6-1 for South Hadley’s second point of the day.
The Tigers have little time to rest before their rematch with Lee in the Western Mass. title game. It is the third straight year the two teams have met, and Lee won both previous matchups, including a 4-1 victory in last year’s title game.
This year, Cestero said the important lesson for his team is to not try to beat Lee at its own game, but to play smarter tennis and force their opponents into making mistakes.
“Lee, they’re hard hitters, and we tried to do the same thing and outhit them,” Cestero said. “They hit hard, what you have to do is do the reverse, just keep the ball in play. If you keep the ball in play, you shouldn’t have any problems. That’s my message (Monday night) when I text them all so they can start thinking about that.”