By Abby Sunu

In-Depth Editor

Thursday, Sept. 26, the girls’ varsity tennis team went into its match against Rolling Meadows with determination. Prospect’s team needed to win both this match and its upcoming match against Hersey in order to have a shot at winning East Division Champions.

Unfortunately, the girls ended up losing in their final match with a close score of 3-4.

Doubles partners junior Lauren Becherer and senior Jelena Ivanisevic came into their match and won their first set, but lost during the final one. They both agree that the doubles teams were better than expected and there was a lot of pressure on the match itself.

“Some teams are a lot better than we thought they would be this year, and other teams that are typically really good, we beat,” Becherer said. “You don’t know based on last year.”

Head coach Mike McColaugh was disappointed by the overall loss, but he is still hoping the team can place high in conference and upcoming tournaments.

“As a team. it was a really tough loss for us,” McColaugh said. “We were really looking forward to competing for a piece of the East Division.”

McColaugh knew how the pressure can affect one’s performance, so he gave the final two girls, Becherer and Ivanisevic advice.

“[McColaugh told us] to just take it point by point and not think ahead of the game and other games to come,” Ivanisevic said.

Although this doubles team did not win, senior Christina Santiago was successful in her singles match, winning 6-2 both sets.

“I thought this match was good,  my component was really consistent, so I had to keep battling it out,” Santiago said.

Even though the team was defeated, Santiago, along with the team, looks forward to the conference, upcoming tournaments and their match against Hersey as they progress through the rest of their season.

“[McColaugh told us to] throw away the games that we lost and start over again. You have to have the attitude that you’re winning and have that momentum or you’re just gonna keep going down,” Becherer said.