Greyhounds bow out of state tourney

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Naugatuck's Miranda Jang returns the ball during NVL girl's tennis semifinals at Woodland High School in Beacon Falls last Saturday afternoon. On Tuesday, Jang gave Naugatuck their only match win in a loss to Simsbury in the opening round of the Class L tournament. Jang will now play in the State Open tennis tournament beginning Saturday at Yale. –RA ARCHIVE

WESTPORT — After an impressive regular season for the Naugatuck girls tennis team, Miranda Jang gave it one more notable achievement.
During Tuesday’s Class L opening-round state tournament match, Jang knocked off Simsbury’s top-ranked player, Monika Dragulski, 6-3, 6-4, on Tuesday afternoon at Staples High in Westport.

No. 24 Simsbury beat No. 9 Naugatuck in the overall meet, 6-1, to advance in the tournament and eliminate the Greyhounds. The ‘Hounds completed the season with a 15-6 record.

An All-Naugatuck Valley League performer, Jang will move on to play in the State Open tennis tournament beginning Saturday at Yale. Jang reached the NVL tournament semifinals last week.

“Miranda is clearly our team’s best player,” Naugy head coach Jose Sendra said of the Greyhounds’ No. 1 singles star. “She’s so excited, especially since it’s so competitive at the state level.”

Simsbury won the other six matches, but the Greyhounds challenged in every match. In addition, Naugy was missing two of its regular starters.

In singles action, No. 2-seed Andrea Jimenez lost to Melissa Gino, 6-2, 6-3. Katie Bottnick, the third seed, fell to Sarah Mattison, 6-3, 6-1. No. 4 Martina Niebryzdowski lost to Carly Raden, 6-2, 6-4.

In doubles, Naugy’s top-seeded Lani Chucta and Hannah Kim lost to Lena Jones and Katie Thorne, 6-1, 6-3. No. 2 Mikaela Santo and Kayla Gallant fell to Nicole Baker and Danielle Weingartner, 6-3, 6-0. In the third-seed match, Naugy’s Liz Perez and Chelsea Iglesias dropped two sets to Nicole Yang and Lindsay Lane.

“They went out there and tried their best,” Sendra said of his team. “Simsbury was just a better team today.”

Sendra said he was pleased with the results this season.

“I expected to be playing with the better teams in the NVL and we were,” Sendra said. “I was pleased with that.”