MANCHESTER, NH – After two years of being the bridesmaid, the Derryfield School girls tennis team reached the alter last season, winning the Division-I championship in dramatic fashion.
Thursday, the Cougars (17-0) renewed their vows with the D-I title, earning a 5-4 victory over second-ranked Bedford High School (14-3) for the second-straight season at Southern New Hampshire University.
And much like last year, the championship came down to the wire, with the second doubles court serving as the deciding factor.
Unlike 2024, however, when that match went into a tie-breaker, this year’s battle – between Derryfield’s Lucy Yakola and Pola Jankowska and Bedford’s Kaylee Raff and Elyse Flynn – was toe-to-toe throughout, but finished in regulation with the Cougars duo pulling away late to earn an 8-5 win and seal the team victory.
While noting the different approaches between doubles and singles, longtime Derryfield head coach Gustavo Moral stressed the importance of pairing players at a similar skill level in doubles.
“If I were to put one thing on top of all that, it would be the chemistry (Yakola and Jankowska) have with one another,” he said. “Sometimes, I confuse them. I will call Pola Lucy and I will call Lucy Pola.
“The fact that we won last year certainly added a level of confidence and self assurance, which is the way we played all year long, so coming in here, we knew it was going to be difficult, and the worst case scenario was coming into doubles, three-three,” said Moral.
Bedford head coach Cathy Farrell said she was confident the contest would come down to doubles, so she and her players put much of their focus there, while changing up their approach against the Cougars, who they fell to, 6-3, on May 12.
“That was our strategy, put up a lot of lobs, move them around, be proactive, rather than reactive with them, and it paid off because a lot of those matches were close,” she said.
While Bedford’s Giada Bruno and Akshava Kildari were still finishing up their team’s fourth win of the day – an 8-4 victory over Marissa Wu and Sarina Punjabi on doubles court three – Derryfield began to celebrate its second D-I crown in as many years.
“It’s my last year, and we wanted to go out with a bang,” said Derryfield No. 1, senior captain Sophia Correnti. “I’m just so proud of this team. All the girls love each other so much and it’s such a special accomplishment.”
To get there, Cougars Correnti and No. 2 Sofia Koshy took care of business on court one, defeating Bulldogs No. 1 Lucy Novak and No. 4 Anna Diaz, 8-1, to give Derryfield its fourth win.
In singles action, the teams split at three wins apiece.
For Derryfield, Correnti defeated Novak, 8-4; No. 3 Jankowska edged Flynn, 8-6; and No. 5 Yakola earned an 8-2 triumph over Bruno.
For Bedford, Diaz defeated Punjabi, 8-4, and Anna Johnson won, 8-1, before Raff won the match of the day, pulling out a 9-8 (7-1) tiebreaker over Koshy, after trailing throughout much of the match.
“She was a true competitor,” said Farrell. “I couldn’t be more impressed and proud of her because she’s a very quiet girl, but she buckled down, and she normally doesn’t like the limelight, but she took everything in stride. She did more than we asked … Kaylee was definitely the star of the singles round … she was a rockstar today.”
Players and coaches on both teams agreed, the level of competition and comrade represented the best of New Hampshire high school tennis.
“It was great tennis, great sportsmanship,” said Farrell. “You know, it was a hot day, but everyone played well. It was fun.”
Having finished runner-up in back-to-back season, Bedford will look to take Derryfield’s route back to the top in 2026, while Derryfield looks for it’s third-consecutive crown.
But first, both teams will be represented at this weekend’s singles and doubles tournaments, which take place Saturday and Sunday, respectively, at Manchester Memorial and Manchester West high schools.
Correnti, in particular, looks for a strong finish to her high school career after finishing second in both the doubles and singles tournaments last season.
“It’s my senior year, my last year, and the the singles tournament is Saturday, so I’ll actually be missing my graduation to go play in it,” she said, “so I’m really excited to play in both singles and doubles.”
