One of the boys’ co-captains, junior Justin Huang, and senior Naomi Esterowitz, who is the girls’ captain, both led their teams through long and hard seasons while maintaining the friendly and motivational dynamic needed to help the team play to the best of their abilities.
Tennis seasons for girls and boys have come to an end for the spring after a winning season. Girls’ tennis went 10-2 and the boys went 11-1 this season. The season started on Mar. 21 with a game against Northwest for both girls and boys. The girls finished with a 7-0 win. Boys ended with a 5-2 win. For the girls, the 7-0 winning pattern would continue for four more games. The girls’ hardest game was against rival Winston Churchill. “Churchill was the hardest match because all the games were very close and it came down to the last match to have a winner,” Esterowitz said.
Girls’ tennis consisted of 17 girls across different grades, along with two managers. Matches are split into singles and doubles, with the top players playing singles, followed by doubles. Who plays singles and doubles is decided during tryouts. The girls play matches against each other in a bracket. The overall winner of all the matches plays in singles one, which is the highest level. Players who finished in fifth through 10th place qualify to play in doubles matches. The rest of the team become alternates who step in when another play is not at a game or injured and can’t play. “Our alternates are the kids who come to all the games and take the place of the injured players,” Duong said.
As for boys’ tennis, they had a successful season this year. They won 11 out of 12 games with seven of those games being 7-0 wins. Not every game was easy for them though. Games against Northwest and Whitman were closer games, the boys winning 5-2. “I’m most proud of the team’s fighting spirit. We had some close games and I was really proud of the focus every single court had during those matches,” Huang said.
Part of Huang’s job as team captain was to motivate his team and keep everyone excited for upcoming games. That also included helping bond the team, which Huang said was easily the best part of tennis this season. “Each year the team has countless hangouts, dinners, and fun time watching states, which truly makes the team enjoyable to be on,” Huang said.
Both Esterowitz and Huang agreed the hardest part of tennis was the mental aspect of the game. According to Haung, it’s important to stay positive through the entire match even when it isn’t going your way. Esterowitz said that for her, the aspect of being the only one playing is hard because when you mess up, there isn’t anyone else to take the fall for you. “It is a hard sport because mentally you have no one to lean on but yourself,” Esterowitz said.
With the regular season being over, both tennis teams will play in counties, which consists of several games ending with one champion. After counties both teams will go to Regionals, which includes schools from outside of Montgomery County. The winners of regionals will then move on to play in States. “Post season is one of the most important times because of playoffs,” sophomore Natalie Asvestopoulou said.
