The Zebras lost a hard fought match to Groton today at home. With a key player out, MX knew it would have to play its best to prevail, and did play close to its best, but still fell a bit short. At #6, junior Zoe Beede won a tight first game 14-12, then she and her tenacious opponent traded games until it was 2 games all. In the fifth game Zoe hit some excellent serves and some key winners with quick racket prep to prevail 11-4. At #2, senior Averill Emery fought to one game all against a hard-hitting Groton player, but the Groton player prevailed in the next two games. Senior Dahlia Galante won the opening game, but her Groton opponent began to move Dahlia all over the court in the next two games. Dahlia came back with good length and put aways in the fourth game, but her opponent upped her own court coverage to just edge Dahlia in the fifth game 11-8. With MX down 2-1, sophomore Marissa Fadely at #5 hit deep and short effectively, to prevail 3-0, and leave the team match at 2 all. At #7 freshman Mia Peng came back from 2-0 in games down to force a deciding fifth game, in which she just missed by a whisker, losing 11-9. Thus, MX came close to winning positions 4-7, but fell just a little short of a Groton team that had the edge on us today.