Girls’ and boys’ tennis continue their reign as they become state champions for the third year. This season sophomore Anthony Hall and senior Naomi Esterwoitz won the 3A state championship played at the Wilde Lake Tennis Club in the mixed doubles match on May 23.
The regular season record for the girls was 10-2 overall and 1-1 conference and for the boys, 11-1 overall and 0-1 conference. Counties started on May 6. Six players from the boys’ team and five players from the girls’ teams were seeded to play at counties in a series of singles and doubles matches. The teams had a combined eight wins at counties. “This season went well for both teams. The boys’ record was 11 wins and one loss. It was exciting to play in counties, regionals and states because it was a great opportunity to represent the team, but it was also more pressure than during the regular season because winning determines if you end or if you continue to play during playoffs,” sophomore Vikram Reddy said.
The boys and girls continued their winning streak to become regional champions on May 17. The teams had seven combined regional wins. The winners included Esterowitz in a singles match, sophomores Katherine Yao and Veronica Chunikhin in a doubles match and freshman Emma Ikeda in a singles match. The boys’ winners included senior Benjamin Wang and Hall both in singles matches and Reddy and sophomore Kyle Li in a doubles match. These players each qualified for the state quarterfinal championship.
States were held on May 23 and consisted of division 3A schools from around the state. The state tournament begins with quarterfinals, goes to semis and concludes with finals. Esterowitz and her partner Hall went to the finals and won the mixed doubles state title. Wang placed third in boys’ singles in the finals, Li and Reddy placed third in boys’ doubles in the state finals and Yao and Chunikhin won in the girls’ doubles quarterfinals, continuing to play in the state finals, ultimately placing second.
Ikeda qualified to play in the girls’ singles state quarterfinals as well but did not qualify for finals. “The tennis season was amazing, winning the mixed doubles title, and with that, the team title was just so great and a perfect way to end the season and my Wootton tennis career,” Esterowitz said.
There were three seniors on both teams this season: Esterowitz, Wang and Dhruv Das. They have all been on the team for over two years and have had a big impact on the team’s outcome for each season. “I think our season went pretty well. We won states for the third year in a row. It was a very fun season. I think next year will be difficult without the seniors but I think we will be able to live up to the challenge and continue to be state champions for many years to come,” sophomore Natalie Asvestopoulou said.
