By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Over the years the Hopedale girls’ tennis team has been very successful, but this year the Blue Raiders have returned to places the team has not been to in some years. 

After finishing the regular season at 12-2, the squad was able to capture its first Central Mass Championship in quite a while. 

In addition, the team once again qualified for the Division State Tournament where they advanced into the Final Four before finally being sent home. Again, this is somewhere the program has not been recently.

“Hopedale hasn’t won the CMASS Tournament in a long, long time. The girls deserved it, I am so happy for them, they worked so hard to reach this point for the first time in a while,” Blue raider coach Art Riffo said. “Advancing to the Final Four in the States was another big step as this is another place that we haven’t been in a long time.”

Once in the State Tournament, Hopedale, the number four seed, had back-to-back 5-0 wins over South Hadley and Mount Greylock before they took down Ipswich 4-1 to enter the Final Four. 

Unfortunately, with only four teams remaining, Hopedale had to take to the courts against the number one team in Hamilton-Wenham. With a 4-1 victory the Generals advanced to their third straight State Championship contest.

In taking on the top seed, Riffo noted that he had never seen the team play before and all that he knew was what he had been told by other coaches – the Generals had some excellent tennis players.

In retuning to a couple of places the Blue Raiders tennis program had not been to in recent memory they did so with three talented seniors, to whom they will be saying goodbye. Callie Costanza and Abby Aldrich played on Hopedale’s number on doubles team while Sidney Hall was the team’s third singles player.

“Callie and Abby were the DVC’s doubles team of the year and only lost one match all season,” the Hopedale Coach said. “They’ve been playing together for at least three years and didn’t want to be separated as they played well together.”

Hall, another excellent tennis player, also only suffered one loss all season. 

Pia Obrador, only a sophomore, has been Hopedale’s number one tennis player since the seventh grade, when she arrived on the scene, and for the second straight season, she not only went undefeated, but was also named to the Dual Valley Conference All-Star team as well as being the league’s Player of the Year.

“She is playing much more comfortable on the court nowadays, but is still a very shy and nervous individual,” Riffo said. “However, once her match starts, she doesn’t talk much so I tell her all that I expect from her is to go out and lay her game. She lets her tennis do her talking.”

Rounding out this year’s singles circuit is another sophomore in Kate Friesma, an excellent player who has been developing her game amazingly since last year’s campaign. Playing second doubles are yet two more sophomores in Gabby Rienhart and Maddy Buttonow leaving Riffo with a lot of young athletes to return next spring.

Although Hopedale was able to make it al the way to the Final Four, the coach was pessimistic about the season in the early stages of the tryout period.

“Prior to the year starting, I didn’t know if I was even going to have enough players,” the Coach said. “If we were able to get to the required number, I figured at best we’d go would be .500 and hopefully qualify for the States and I’d be happy. So, by what we actually accomplished you could say I am very satisfied with or season.”

The tennis program was able to get some very athletic girls to join the team and coupled with the players returning from last year Riffo had in his presence one of the better teams that he has had in years, thus exceeding his expectations.

Savannah Sene is an excellent tennis player who graced the squad this season but didn’t see much time on the court and if she works on her game, she can be an a much better player. Unfortunately, the Coach is unsure if the young tennis player is going to come back to the team next spring.

Emma Friesma (Kate’s twin sister) is another young athlete who could move into a starting position. According to the coach, she has a lot of power, but doesn’t know how to use it properly.

“With some training I’m sure that she can turn herself into a great tennis player,” said. “However, right now she needs to learn how to control that power and control it. She needs to learn the basics and techniques first, then she can unleash the power.”

Freshman Rose Dering got into only one match this season, but the coach believes that she may see some action in the second doubles spot come next spring. Elise Paquette and Merit Yousses also have potential and could also battle for a starting position.

At this point, Riffo is most likely looking at filling his first doubles team as well as the third singles position. Things could all change to what he will actually be looking for come next year. Buttonow could possibly move from doubles to third singles or the second doubles team could elevate to the first doubles team thus leaving other holes.

“Maddy’s a really good player and can play at either position,” the coach said. “If she goes to singles that leaves us with both doubles team’s open and that could be a challenge.”

Challenge or not, Riffo and his team will have an entire year to revel in their 2024 accomplishments before he has to decide who is going to play where next season.