By Andy Hutchison

WESTPORT — The Staples girls tennis team lost to Darien 5-2 in the FCIAC Tournament quarterfinals Monday. Staples was the No. 6 seed and Darien the No. 3 team.

The Wreckers’ first and second doubles teams — Rhiya Anand/Tatum Keefe (the top tandem) and Lola Lamensdorf/Amelia Berkowitz — won both of their lines in two sets in the away match. 

“The rest of the team fought really hard, but unfortunately lost some very tough matches,” Staples Coach Jena Wider said. 

“We are keeping our heads up and looking forward to the team states competition.”

Staples closed out the regular season with wins over St. Joseph of Trumbull on May 7 and Westhill of Stamford on May 9. The Wreckers finished with an overall record of 12-5.

Late-season highlights include Keefe, a freshman, playing No. 1 singles and posting a strong win against Westhill’s senior Isabel Jakes 6-2, 6-1. Staples’ No. 4 singles player Sarah Marron had prevailed over St. Joseph counterpart Cate Conlan 6-0, 6-4.

First doubles combo of Lamensdorf and Anand had an impressive season, winning each of last week’s matches with ease, prevailing against Joseph’s 6-0, 6-1 and Westhill 6-0, 6-0.

The team celebrated Senior Day at the last home match, against Westhill, honoring Chloe Francis (who will head to Syracuse in the fall) and Marron (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

(Game schedules are subject to change; click for the latest updates.)  

Andy Hutchison has been covering school sports — including Staples athletics — as well as news and feature stories in Fairfield County, since the 1990s.