Girls Varsity and JV Tennis Advance in League 6-0

By: Sydney Brammer

On Tuesday, April 27th, 2021 at 4:00 PM, girls Varsity and JV tennis competed against the school down the street, Mt. Whitney High School. Both teams took the win, Varsity 8-1 at Redwood, and JV 5-0 at Mt. Whitney.

Elizabeth Gormley, ’21 (#1) won her singles match 6-1, 6-0, and her doubles 8-2. Gormley expected Mt. Whitney to be consistent in their playing and to “play long points.” She says, “They definitely lived up to our expectations and they pushed us to play these long points and fight to win…”

Gormley believes her strength was “placing the ball well.” She says that her opponent was “very fast” and countered a lot of her balls, so she had to make sure she hit the ball to every spot on the court until her opponent couldn’t return them.

For her doubles match, Gormley and her partner, Madelyn Adams, ’21 (#2) needed to stay “focused a lot on playing well at the net,” says Gormley. Their opponents played at the baseline most of the match, so they worked on hitting deep shots at the baseline until the player at the net could finish the point, according to Gormley.

In regards to what she expects from her next opponent, Lemoore, Gormley says, “We’ve already played Lemoore, so we have a good understanding of what we need to do to win…”

Sophia Degn, ’21 (#3) also won her singles and doubles match. Her singles 6-4, 6-1, and her doubles 8-2. Degn was expecting Mt. Whitney to have improved since last year when they last played them, and she was right. According to her, her opponent was able to return her balls and keep the rallies going. She says, “my match was more challenging than I anticipated.”

During her singles, Degn needed to keep the ball in which led to very long rallies and ultimately, a long match.

During her doubles match, she and her partner, Joselyn Arellano, ’23 (#4) played aggressively. Arellano lost her singles match before their match, so she needed to get her head back in the game to stay focused in order to win. Degn says, “Joselyn was able to shake off her last match and was very ready for doubles.” The girls communicated well and had each other’s back to secure the win.

Ally Terrible, ’22 (#5) won her singles in a tiebreaker 4-6, 6-1, 10-8. Knowing Mt. Whitney was a good team, Terrible was expecting a tough match. In the first set, Terrible said she had “no strategies” which is why she lost. However, in the second set, she played it safer and started getting “less nervous” which ultimately carried her far in the set.

Terrible is expecting her next opponent, Lemoore to be well-fought. She says it “Might be a little quick, but they are a good team so we will have to see.”

As the Varsity girls have continued their winning streak, the team is very excited and proud. Gormley says, “It feels great! We’re happy to be playing well and winning our matches.” Degn states, “I am so proud of the team and overall just so happy we are able to keep the streak going.”

Back to the JV team, Brooke O’Leary, ’22 (#1) won her singles 8-2. She expected Mt. Whitney to be decent due to the fact they are second-best in the league. O’Leary says, “The girl I play was okay, she could rally a lot back and forth, but didn’t have a lot of power within her shots.”

Her main goal throughout the match was to “keep the ball in.” She knew if she could out-rally her opponent, she would win.

Cailyn Jensen, ’22 (#2) also won her singles with a score of 8-4. She expected her opponent to be “significantly stronger than El Diamante [their last opponent].” To earn her win, Jensen out-rallied her opponent and hit the ball deep. She says, “I did much better at returning lobes and serving.”

Anastasia Cardona, ’22 (#3), and her partner, Hanbin Yu, ’22 (#4) won their doubles match in a tiebreaker 7-7, 10-5 making the overall score 8-7.

Cardona expected the match to be a challenge because their opponents were equal in skill level to them. Throughout the match, they were neck-and-neck but eventually pulled through to take the win in a tiebreaker.

JV coach, Samantha Rios knew Mt. Whitney was going to be the team’s toughest match-up during league. To prepare, she worked with her doubles players to improve their strategies and tiebreakers.

Since the beginning of the season, the team has “improved tremendously.” Some of the players she received had never played before, and now “they can confidently rally with an opponent” and win the point, Rios says.

Stand-out players from the match according to Rios was the #1 doubles, Cardona and Yu, along with the #2 doubles, Katherine Hornburg, ’22, and Ashlyn Guenter, ’24. The reason for this is because both pairs had to go into a tiebreaker and came out with a win. Rios says, “Both doubles teams played very well and made smart adjustments against Mt. Whitney.”

When looking towards their next opponent, Lemoore, Rios says the team did well against them the first time they played them, but they will “assume that they have improved,” just like they have. Cardona also states, “after working on a few things and seeing their abilities, I believe that if we play our best, we can definitely bring home a win.”

Regarding their so-far winning streak in the season, O’Leary says, “It feels good! Mt. Whitney is definitely the hardest school we’ll play, so it feels good to know that we can beat them.” Coach Rios states, “It feels good, but we still have to remember to always play at our level no matter who we are playing.”

Post-Lemoore Match

On Thursday, the 29th at 4:00 PM, girls Varsity and JV tennis took (unsurprisingly) another win against Lemoore High School making that 6-0 so far in the season for both teams.

With the exact same scores as their match against Mt. Whitney, Varsity won 8-1, and JV 5-0.

To watch Redwood’s amazing tennis teams, their next match is against Golden West for the second time around at 4:00 PM on Tuesday, May 4th. Varsity will be on Golden West’s courts, while JV stays at home.

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