The boys’ tennis team won 4-3 against Maine South on Friday, April 19. After several previous matches got rained out, the victory against Maine South assured head coach Patrick Weber of the team’s strengths in doubles, as well as setting up to get to the net from the baseline. 

However, it also showed him lessons his team can take into the upcoming conference season.

“Always the top teams, year after year, are able to close things out at the net,” Weber said. “So always working on that and making sure we can get there and get aggressive, and then put it away whenever they give us opportunities.”

After getting rained out of Thursday’s match against Rolling Meadows, the team was able to complete the match they didn’t complete on Monday and won 7-0. Now, players take the lessons and skills they learned from the season so far into the upcoming conference season, starting with a match against Elk Grove on Thursday 25 and ending with the conference tournament on May 9-11. 

One of those lessons has to do with Friday’s weather; the extreme winds that day posed some challenges for the team. However, Olivier Witek, who won his match 6-0, 6-1, enjoys it.

“We have learned to kind of manipulate the wind and kind of use it to our advantage,” Witek said. “[It’s] a fun aspect of the spring season.”

Going into upcoming matches, like this past weekend’s Knight’s Invitational, Witek believes the team is one of the most important aspects of the game.

“In an invitational, you switch up matches, so you often switch up teammates,” Witek said. “And you might be playing with a partner that you don’t really usually play with, so communication is really important.”