By Andy Hutchison

Staples girls tennis followed up its appearance in the FCIAC Tournament semifinals with a run to the Class LL State Tournament championship round.

The No. 5 Wreckers opened state play by defeating No. 12 Southington 7-0, then beat No. 4 Amity of Woodbridge 5-2 before knocking off top seed South Windsor 5-2 in Tuesday’s LL semis.

That set up a date with FCIAC rival and No. 2 Greenwich in Wednesday’s title match at Joel Barlow High in Redding. Greenwich prevailed 4-0 (three more hard-fought matches were still going on when the match was decided).

In the semifinal match Staples winners were No. 2 singles Amelia Berkowitz, No. 4 singles Sadie Yanks, and all three doubles: No. 1 Rhiya Anand/Lola Lamensdorf, No. 2 Emma Kantor/Isabel Alfageme and No. 3 Dylan Lehrer/ Rachel Guzman.

“I am incredibly proud of the girls that they have reached the state final for the second year in a row. It took a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication. The team really came together to achieve this goal and it has been a pleasure coaching them,” Coach Jennifer Wider said.

Coming off its 4-2 loss to Greenwich in the FCIAC title match the Staples boys tennis team won its first two Class LL State Tournament matches before losing to Fairfield Prep in Tuesday’s semifinals.

The No. 2 Wreckers defeated No. 15 East Hartford 7-0 and No. 10 Westhill of Stamford 6-1 en route to the semis before falling 4-2 to No. 3 Prep which moved on to face top seed Greenwich in the Wednesday, June 4 championship match.

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