After facing significant team changes because of graduating seniors, the girls varsity tennis team now sits in the middle of league standings with a 4-4 record.
Head Coach Andy Haradar said that the team’s standings match what he predicted for the season.
“We’re right in the middle of the pack,” Harader said. “We won once and made third a couple of times, but we usually find ourselves in the middle of the pack, since it’s a really tough league.”
Harader also said one of the team’s biggest obstacles has been players missing practices due to other activities, specifically robotics.
“Robotics is cutting into the team,” Haradar said. “We had to forfeit a match yesterday, and today I thought we would have to forfeit another. Luckily we have great captains who made it clear that everyone needed to come today, so we can play.”
Senior captain Riya De Datta said while the competition is rising, the team dynamic has shifted from last season due to seniors graduating and an influx of freshmen players.
“Some of the other teams are really good, and since we lost all of our seniors from last year, the team is pretty different,” De Datta said. “But we have a bunch of new freshmen, which is really exciting and creates a whole new team dynamic.”
De Datta said working with the new players has been a challenge on the doubles side, but as the season progresses, the chemistry is increasing quickly.
“We’re still learning how to play together, especially the doubles teams,” De Datta said. “But as time has gone on, we’ve gotten better and better and we are figuring out how to play with each other and rely on each other more.”
Despite challenges, Harader said the team is working hard, and beating Gunn was a great way to increase morale.
“The girls are playing hard out there, and I have really great captains that bring the team together,” Harader said. “We were really happy to beat Gunn, since they’re our cross-court rivals. We’ve won some and lost some, but we’re just going to keep on working hard and see what happens.”
