By MUSA MA and JONATHAN FORTUNOFF
This year, the girls varsity tennis team worked hard and played even harder with a team consisting of multiple young talent.
This year’s team consisted of 2 middle schoolers and 5 sophomores. While this could pose a problem for team bonding, the opposite was the case. Coach Colleen O’Connell was impressed with how well her team worked together despite the age spread. “It’s been fantastic. The seniors are really coming together and really helping everybody because we do have two young players, a 7th grader and an 8th grader, and the seniors are leading the way. They’re really doing a fantastic job,” she said.
The team has not seen this kind of chemistry in many years. According to senior Katerina Papastavrou, “The team chemistry has been the best it has been in a while. We all got along very well and it didn’t even feel like there was much of an age gap.”
The mindset of this year’s team has been one of strategy and focus. Junior Ranya Parekh focused on her strategy while playing doubles. “When you play, you’re thinking a lot about how your opponents are and how your partner plays, what balls you should get, and what balls your partner should get. It’s a lot of battling a bunch of things at the same time.”
Next year, the team hopes to return to a winning season. With more young and aspiring athletes moving up every year, the team has almost completed its rebuilding phase. In the next few years, with the support and guidance of the senior players, the team is looking to make a push to further progress in the playoffs. Regardless of the 1-13 record, Senior Katerina Papastavrou was very pleased with the way the season ended. “We played really well, we obviously didn’t win all our matches, but we definitely improved from the first game to the last,” she said.
The team’s 1-13 record did not adequately reflect the team’s ability. Last year the team topped Conference 2 and was promoted to Conference 1, the pinnacle of high school tennis in the county. Now, facing tougher opponents, the players feel a sense of pressure to perform.
This year’s players practiced harder than ever for the postseason with tense workouts and drills. Players made every effort to improve outside of school. Junior Ranya Parekh has a very strong opinion about preparation. “It’s a lot more generalized practice. Especially before tryouts because you don’t know what you’re going to face. But now, especially during the season, we try to do a lot more targeted practice. A lot of us are really good at hitting ground shots on the baseline. But not a lot of people are good at hitting on volleys so we work more on that,” she said.
The team’s hard work paid off as they defeated Lynbrook 6-1 in the opening round of the playoffs. With the momentum gained from the win, the team went on to play a close game against Roslyn. Unfortunately, their season was over after losing to Roslyn in the quarterfinals 5-2.
Great Article and Video!