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Oyster River girls tennis completes second straight Division II state championship season

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Oyster River girls tennis completes second straight Division II state championship season

Al Pike
 |  Special to Seacoast Media Group

DOVER – Kathryn Demarest of the top-seeded Oyster River High School girls tennis team is affectionately known as the “Backboard” for her ability to frustrate opponents by returning almost every shot they have in their arsenal.

“She’s so consistent,” said senior co-captain Clea Gibson. “Even if there’s a powerful player against her, she’s so consistent. She gets to every ball. Her feet are there. It’s very impressive. She doesn’t lose.”

Demarest used that strategy to help erase an early deficit and pull out a win at No. 3 singles that clinched Wednesday’s Division II championship match, a 6-3 win over No. 2 Souhegan, for the Oyster River High School girls tennis team at the Dover High courts.

“She’s a good scrambler,” said Oyster River coach Lynne Corson. “She goes after everything. She doesn’t ever say die.”

For the Bobcats, it was their second straight Division II title and 34th consecutive victory.

“It was the staying power, and it was the mental game,” Corson said. “(The girls) stepped in, and they were shocked by the speed. They’d never seen Souhegan before, so I think in their heads, they had a different mindset of what they had to do. Then when they saw how fast they played they had to just settle themselves and remember that they could still play tennis and get back into it.”

Trailing by scores of 2-0 and 3-1, Demarest rallied for an 8-6 win over Souhegan’s Mishka Tower that gave Oyster River a 5-1 lead after singles.

“I could definitely feel like the heat was getting to her and she started making mistakes,” Demarest said, “so I just had to keep up with her pace and not let her get ahead of me.”

“We call her our backboard,” Corson said. “We play this thing called a 100-ball rally and we count how many times we can keep it going. She’s the one that can keep it going the longest. So, we remind her all the time that if you play someone that’s a backboard you know you can stay out there for more than 100 balls. She can outlast her and that’s what she did.”

Oyster River’s experience, depth pay off

Clea Gibson came back from a 4-0 deficit at No. 2 singles and pulled out an 8-6 verdict over Souhegan’s Tess Jancar.

“I think I realized that she was feeding off my power a little bit,” Gibson said. “Maybe I’ll start to slow it down and pretend it’s like practice and get out of my head. It’s easy to come back after you get a couple games, so I was getting a little momentum and just took it from there.”

No. 4 Sofia Karageorgos (8-3), No. 5 Siena Schaier (8-3) and No. 6 Jessica Li (8-0) all won singles matches for Oyster River. The No. 3 doubles tandem of Schaier and Li also prevailed (8-2).

“The bottom of their lineup played very well and very strong, and very consistent,” said Souhegan coach Bo Dean. “We had too many unforced errors at the bottom. They’re very steady. They played consistent tennis today and didn’t hurt themselves with unforced errors and that’s a big deal. In high school tennis that’s huge.”

Schaier and Li were the only players to win both their singles and doubles matches for Oyster River, another testament to the Bobcats’ depth.

“It’s them,” Corson said. “It’s what they have and what’s in their tool kit. It’s not anything I as a coach can teach them in the few weeks you have them. It’s what they’ve learned in the offseason.”

Souhegan’s Callie Perrin prevailed at No. 1 singles (8-0) and No. 1 doubles with Caroline Drum for two of the Sabers’ three points. The No. 2 doubles tandem of Jancar and Mishka Tower (8-6) accounted for Souhegan’s other point.

Oyster River seniors complete two perfect years

“These girls have been playing together since elementary school,” Corson said. “They’re a very tight-knit group, the seniors. I think they’ve just got this ‘We are family’ mentality and went into this last year, I think it was midseason and they were like, ‘We can win the state championship.’ They put that goal out there for themselves. They’re the ones that pushed for it.

“The first practice this year that’s what they said, ‘We want to do it again this year.’ They wanted to go out on top so I’m really proud of them.”     

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