By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI
NORTH READING — North Reading High girls’ tennis coach Matt Tiberii gave out three awards at the team’s end-of-season banquet recently.
The team MVP Award went to sophomore Matilda Ton. The second singles player went 14-4 this year.
Senior co-captain, Althea Bradley, received the Unsung Heroine award. This spring, she went 14-5 at first singles.
Aniya Taneja, another senior captain, took home the Coaches Award. Taneja mostly played at first doubles this season.
The Hornets will lose four seniors to graduation. Along with Bradley and Taneja, the team will also lose Addison Stetson and Karina Mountain.
Stetson, a co-captain, and Mountain mostly played doubles.
“Althea was in the lineup for four years while Taneja, Stetson and Mountain all played with us for two years,” pointed out Tiberii, who just completed his 8th-year at the helm. “We made the states all four years they were here so they had a good run.”
In the MIAA Division 3 state tournament, the Hornets lost, 4-1, at Danvers in the opening round.
With that defeat, North Reading ended the year at 10-10 overall. That was the same record they finished with last spring.
In the Cape Ann League, the Hornets were 6-7 as they finished in 3rd place in the CAL Kinney Division behind Lynnfield and Newburyport.
Next season, the Hornets are slated to return four starers and several other veterans.
“We have a good future coming up and I am looking forward to next year,” said Tiberii.
The captains were also voted on by the players for next season and they will be Mary Doble and Shenaya Verma who will both be seniors next spring.
North Reading will also have an assistant captain and that will be Juliet Wasilewski, who will also be a 12th-grader next year.