By Krzys Chwala (@KrzysChwala)
This year’s varsity girls’ tennis team has only four returning players, and 11 girls moved up the ranks to fill in the spaces of last year’s seniors.
“We’ve just kind of accepted that we have a really young team. We were like, ‘Oh yeah, this is going to be interesting,’” junior and first doubles player Hannah Haeberle said.
According to Haeberle, who made the jump to varsity last year, the biggest difference she adjusted to was playing a match every Saturday in addition to matches during the week, as opposed to only playing one Saturday on the JV level.
The varsity level also requires a faster pace and more alertness.
“Day in and day out, there are no bad players when you’re playing in a varsity match,” coach Mike McColaugh said. “You’re going to be tested from every school at every level. They just have to be ready to play every day.”
According to McColaugh, because the team is less experienced, they have been spending more time discussing what to expect during the season and match strategy. Some players, like Haeberle and her partner senior Karina Petrunova, are trying a new Australian formation.
Although they had mixed results with the formation because it works best with righties and Haeberle is a lefty, they are still giving it a go.
Even though the team mostly consists of new players, team bonding has been no problem, according to senior Janeta Yancheva, as they have weekly “Fun Fridays” and even had a team sleepover.
The girls played their first match against Maine South on August 25 (check the results here) and has an upcoming match against Saint Viator on August 26 and its first tournament on August 29. (For the full schedule of the team’s matches and tournaments, click here.)
With the new team, McColaugh’s main goal is to compete in the MSL East Division.
“Every week we want to get better and be playing our best tennis at the end of the season,” McColaugh said. “They’re quality players. They’re highly skilled. Their futures are bright. It’s just that it’s difficult to make that jump from JV to varsity, but so far, so good. We’re confident that they’ll do fine.”
This year’s roster:
Seniors
Micaela Campanile
Amanda Dziadus
Giana Galle
Natalie Lysik
Karina Petrunova
Shreya Thakkar
Caroline Trefelner
Janeta Yancheva
Juniors
Katie Cooper
Hannah Haeberle
Katie Meredith
Sophomores
Anna Cooper
Colleen Stanford
Anne Walsh
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Girls’ tennis encounters new players, strategies
August 25, 2015
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