Melissa Lin - state champion

Susan Bitetti sweeps to state tennis title

By Mike Farrell  / Girls Tennis
Sunday, June 15, 2008 - Added 1d 17h ago

WORCESTER - If you decided to cruise down to Clark University to enjoy some sun, a cool bottled water and a dramatic, war-of-attrition-style battle to settle the state's individual girls singles and doubles championships, this may not have been the year.

At least, it wasn't until the day's last set.

After Norwell's Susan Bitetti authored a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of Longmeadow's Rebecca Kimmel for the state singles crown, Winchester's Melissa Lin and Leslie Signor followed suit and blanked Notre Dame Academy's Kelly Leonard and Lindsay Harrington in the first set 6-0.

The following set provided the day's only clenched fists and bitten fingernails, as Notre Dame fought back valiantly, but ultimately fell 7-5, securing the doubles title for Winchester.

"I think we let it get to our head that we won 6-0, so it's really hard to come back from that," Lin said. "You think you can sail through it, but you can't. Neither of us were too tired."

Photo by Herald file photo

Winchester's Melissa Lin, along with doubles teammate Leslie Signor, captured the state championship yesterday at Clark University.