The varsity girls’ tennis team has kicked off their 2017 campaign, as they look to achieve similar success to last season where they went 11-1 and won the county championship.
The girls will have large shoes to fill as last year’s star Miranda Deng graduated. Deng won four straight state titles and was a leader on the squad. The girls are lead by coach Fevronia Cresham, who is looking, to guide the Patriots to winning a state championship. Cresham is the coach of boys and girls tennis and leads them both in the state tournament, which takes place during the spring. Junior Angela Wu believes Cresham is the right person to coach them to success. “She gives us a huge push to win, not just for ourselves, but for the team and for the school,” Wu said.
The year was kicked off on Sept. 6 with a scrimmage against the Good Counsel Falcons. The girls won the scrimmage winning six out of seven matches. Two days later, the Patriots opened up their regular season on Sept. 8 against the Quince Orchard Cougars. The team came out strong as they beat the Cougars, winning all seven matches. Both singles and doubles had successful days showing off how well the team can perform. Taking every match was the start the team was looking for as it showed how dominant they were. Junior Amanda Merkin credits the victory to the culture and positive team atmosphere. “Everyone is so supportive of each other and we are a super close team because of that,” Merkin said.
The girls then had a match against the Walt Whitman Vikings on Sept. 11. They were able to pull out a close victory, beating the Vikings four matches to three in a four-hour marathon. Freshman Annie Dong won her match by default as her opponent dislocated her shoulder on the first serve. While they didn’t win as convincingly as the last match, the Vikings are a stronger team so they weren’t as easy to beat. The singles team was successful as they picked up key wins needed to beat Whitman. As both of these teams have talent this could be a counties preview. Wu believes that the skill set that each player has allows the team to perform to their maximum potential.
“Each girl brings their own unique skills to the team, and I think that makes our team so unique then being able to work together and really put our strengths forward as a team is really what makes us so strong,” Wu said.
On Sept. 14 the team traveled to Richard Montgomery to face the Rockets. The girls won their third straight match 4-3. Freshmen Annie Dong and Ellie Esterowitz junior Angela Wu and senior Claire Chen each picked up singles’ victories for the Patriots. The doubles teams were unable to win either of their matches.

Ethan Reff

JV Sports Editor