By David Kolin
Starting out its season with a 2-2 overall record and a league record of 1-0, the girls’ tennis team won its first league match of the season 14-4 against Notre Dame High School.
This year, the coaches are emphasizing effective communication between doubles partners, and dependable, reliable strokes, captain Alanna Klein ’11 said.
The doubles teams and singles players warm-up separately so they can practice their unique sets of skills.
The team’s losses were due to the girls’ lack of match experience, player Taylor Coon ’12 said.
They are still working on perfecting their team line up. The girls are frequently changing their positions.
“A lot of our players are able to rotate to different positions,” Coon said.
The team’s ability to rotate its players easily is also one of their strengths. Unlike some schools that have a few strong players, the team has strong players throughout their lineup, Coon said.
“It’s easier to win in doubles than to sweep in singles,” Coon said.
The team’s closest match was against Santa Barbara. They lost 8-10 at Sept 22 Studio City Golf and Tennis.
This year the girls began the season early because school started Aug. 31. They were able to practice together two weeks before they began playing matches. Their pre-season scrimmage was played on Sept. 14.
Last year, the team began playing matches the same week that school started. The girls had little time to practice as a team, and as a result, their first matches were tougher, Coon said.
The extra time has allowed the team to start the season more prepared than it was last year.
Two of the starting players, captains Nicole Hung ’10 and Izzy Heller ’10, were the first doubles team last year, and they frequently won all of their matches. The team is beginning to recover from their departure.
Savannah de Montesquiou ’13, the team’s top player, is ranked 159th nationally and 38th in California according to tennisrecruiting.net. She has played as the team’s number one singles player since she was a freshman.
