On Thursday afternoon, June 10th, Waldstein Park bustled with energy as the girls tennis defeated Barnstable to move on to the Division I South Sectional Finals.

As usual, Brookline’s top two players, freshman Sonya Khudyakov and senior Rachel Hechinger, were stellar. Khudyakov won 6-2, 6-2 and Hechinger won 6-2, 6-2 as well.

Sophomore Ndanu Mutisiaf lost her match 6-3, 6-3, setting up an exciting finish in which one of the doubles teams would have to win in order for Brookline to advance to the next round.

The first doubles team, consisting of senior Mei Kasif and junior Carrie Tucker, lost their match. The experienced duo struggled again early on and lost the first set.

Playing parallel to them were senior Allie Greenberg and junior Clasby Chope, who pulled out the victory on Tuesday against Newton North. Once again, eyes were on the second doubles team that likely needed a victory in order to advance. Greenberg and Chope had taken the first set 6-5 and as the second set was tied 5-5 the tides began to turn.

A player facing Chope and Greenberg began to feel sick and was unable to continue playing. Barnstable was left with no choice but to forfeit the match, and was consequently eliminated from postseason play. Kasif and Tucker lost their match shortly after, leaving Brookline with an emotional 3-2 win.

Both the girls and boys play in the Division I South Sectional Finals tomorrow, June 11th. The boys face Barnstable and the girls face Sharon.

Noa Dalzell can be contacted at [email protected]