The New Canaan High School varsity girls tennis team on Thursday dominated No. 1 seed Guilford 7-0 to win the Class L CIAC Finals.
The state title win at Joel Barlow High School—which coincided with a CIAC title by the NCHS boys team (congratulations to coach Ben Young and his players)—was punctuated by all straight-set wins. The No. 2 seeded Rams, who’d won FCIACs over Greenwich High School last week, were led by No. 1 NCHS player Leah Zheng who won 6-0 6-0. No. 2 Aaciya Sonthonnax won 6-1 6-1, No. 3 Liza Sieghart won 6-2 6-1 and playing at No. 4 Natalia Lundberg won 6-1 6-2. The Rams also dominated in doubles: Layla Zuwiyya and Camryn Lee won 6-0 6-1, Claire Pellegrino and Christina Carr won 6-3 6-1 and Sophie Adamczyk and Lucy Bench won 6-1 6-1.
We put some questions to coach Catherine Walker after the state title victory.
Here’s our exchange.
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New Canaanite: Congratulations on winning FCIACs as well as states. What a run. How are you feeling at this moment?
Class L CIAC Champion NCHS Boys and Girls Tennis teams together on the day they notched their crowns—May 30, 2024. Contributed
Coach Catherine Walker: I am so proud of the team. The girls have worked hard all year to get ready for competition in the tough FCIACs. I am super proud of how the girls came together as a team. We worked really hard to perfect the double lineup. All three of the doubles teams really complement each other. The FCIAC win against Greenwich was super exciting since we lost to Greenwich in the regular season. That match came down to #1 doubles winning in three sets. Our singles lineup is so strong and have been all year long—we could really count on our singles for the wins.
Walk us through this dominant 7-0 win in the state finals on Thursday. Who are the leaders on this team?
The girls played well today and dominated at all positions. Leah Zheng is an amazing player who really sets the tone for the team. She hits such an amazing ball and is a fierce competitor. No. 2 Aaciya Sonthonnax has never lost a match playing for New Canaan in the past 2 years. She has only lost one set this entire season. She is our solid winner! No. 3 Liza Sieghart is a senior and captain. She is lefty and crushes her forehands. She is an amazing athlete and player and extraordinary leader on the team. She is very smart, organized and athletic. Layla Zuwiyya is the other co-captain and has been on V since her freshman year. Layla has been a key player in both singles and doubles the past four years.
To our readers who are unfamiliar with this team and its members, what would you say about them?
All the girls on this team play tennis all year long. They are very strong competitors. Leah and Aaciya play many USTA tournaments. They are amazing competitors and have beautiful strokes. Liza is a natural athlete and hits the ball really hard and is a true competitor. Amy is a junior and has played a lot of matches at four singles and she’s won a lot of matches for the team. She’s a great asset to have on the team. She helps me out with so many things, is very organized and helpful. The number one doubles team of Layla and Camryn Lee have really started playing well together. They’ve played the second half of the season together and, like I said earlier, won the FCIAC match against Greenwich for the team in three sets. Number two doubles Pellegrino and Christina Carr have really meshed together as a doubles team as well. Claire Pellegrino is a squash player and is going to UVA for squash next year, and her squash game has really helped her tennis game in the past three years. She’s a great volleyer/ hit some great slice shots and has a great neck game. She and Christina play really well together because Christina hits really solid topspin groundstrokes.
Number three doubles Lucy and Adamczyk are a very strong doubles team. Sophie is super consistent from the baseline and hits a hard ball. She’s very helpful on the team to me and is always helping out her teammates in any way she can. Lucy has a really strong serve and hit some great volleys and is a good doubles player. She’s going to be in the doubles lineup hopefully the next three years.
Natalia Lundberg and Sophia Lamagna have both played numerous singles and doubles matches throughout the season and both have nice topspin shots and should be in the lineup next year.
Who is your most improved player(s) this season?
I don’t think we have a most improved player. I think all the girls have improved and like I stated above, the doubles teams have worked really hard to play smart doubles. We’ve worked with the doubles players a lot on various drills and strategies to improve how they play. They were actually not playing real doubles when we started the season. A lot of these girls were singles players and didn’t focus on doubles so I would say the most improvement has come from our doubles lineup and my continuous work with the girls on shot placement, court positioning and overall strategy. The singles players are very used to competing and tournaments so I would give them less feedback, but would definitely redirect them during matches if necessary.
What is the makeup of the team in terms of the years of the players? Is this a squad that NCHS might expect to dominate tennis in future years?
There are three seniors graduating and we will miss them immensely—Liza Seagirt, Layla Zia, Claire Pellegrino are all seniors graduating. You will have rising seniors next year and the rest of the team is relatively young. Number one singles Leah Zheng is a freshman, and Aaciya Sonthonnax is only a sophomore. Number one doubles player Camryn Lee is only a sophomore, as well as Sophia Lamagna and Natalia Lundberg, who are also sophomores. I do believe we will have a very strong team next year as well.