With temperatures getting cooler and each day becoming shorter, the season of fall sports is slowly coming to an end. For the girls varsity tennis team, their season has proved challenging but memorable as they’ve overcome obstacles and grown as a team.
For many of the girls, it was a fun experience welcoming two new freshmen onto the team this year and watching them grow and improve throughout the season. The team has experienced difficulties compensating for the loss of five senior graduates from last year, who had played on doubles tennis teams. This raised the problem of not only filling those spots on the team, but also making sure those who would be added to the team would connect well with the girls on doubles tennis whose partners graduated last year.
This year also presented the team with some challenges because of their league switch, which placed them against better competition compared to previous years. But through hard work in practices and support from each other, the girls were able to keep their heads high through victories and setbacks, earning themselves sixth place in the Palomar League.
Despite the team’s 2-6 record in Palomar League play, second-year varsity player Ava Brahmbhatt (10) said that there has been a major improvement since the beginning of the season, when new doubles partners were being paired, to the near end of the season where they have built chemistry and learned to play well together.
“We had to reconstruct our doubles line-up, and in doubles, it’s really just a trial process to see who plays well with who,” Brahmbhatt said. “We have just started to get that going this season as well.”
Juliana Hong (11), Crystal Chen (11), Ava Khansari (11), Noelle Dang (11), and Difei Zhu (12) will be presented with the opportunity to showcase their skills and represent their team beyond league games by being entered in individual CIFs, starting on Monday. Chen and Zhu, and Khansari and Dang are partners in doubles tennis. Chen said that two years ago she and her partner Zhu used to play together in tournaments, which made figuring out how to play with each other again this season feel easy and more natural.
On the other hand, Hong would be going into CIFs solo, being the only singles tennis player that was entered in individual CIFs. She says she is proud to represent her team.
“Being in CIF individuals is exciting but at the same time it’s more competitive than league matches, because it’s two full sets, regular scoring, which is different from the one set no advantage scoring we do for league.” Hong said.
Going into team CIFs, the girls expect to be going up against cutthroat competition, which would present them with a lot of tough matches. However, Brahmbhatt said that this will provide them with the opportunity to show that the team has what it takes to rise to the challenge.
This season, proving to have been both new and exciting, gave a lot of the girls memories they won’t soon forget. For Hong, a moment still playing in her mind from the season was her last league match against Torrey Pines.
“I played doubles and we were the last [match] to finish,” Hong said. “We went into a 7-point tiebreaker and, because I don’t play doubles that often, that tiebreaker felt a lot different. We ended up winning, which is a great feeling, and I think I was able to keep positive because it was senior night, so I had something to look forward to.”
