Varsity Tennis: Summer and the 2019 Pre-Season

By: Belle Gendron

As preseason ends, Redwood High School’s women’s tennis team goes into the 2019 year as undefeated West Yosemite League champions, working hard to stay undefeated. These ladies pushed themselves all summer to be able to go into this season as strong as possible.

Maddie Adams ’21 is the captain this year, and her goal, “Is always to improve and get better.” Fellow captain, Elizabeth Gormley ’21 gives her thoughts about the team’s energy saying, “It’s not too different, the new coach keeps the same energy.”

Adams describes the situation over summer as, “Arriving at 3:30 a lot of days, playing the the dead heat of the summer.” Gormley says, “It was hot, but it better prepared us, so during the season its not as bad.” One of the biggest struggles of summer practice is that, “It’s always at least ten degrees hotter on the court if its a 100 out its minimum 110 on the courts,” Adams recalls. Despite this, Redwood keeps up the hard work.

Last year, Rosemary Lewis stepped down as coach. The team was taken over by the JV coach Matt Gong. Adams says on behalf of this new change, “He is a good coach and looks to help the grow and improve as a team.” This season, Gormley says that Coach Gong looks to, “Put more focus on match play, training us to be more consistent.”

Retired Coach Lewis had led many seasons of tennis players to the WYL championship, having a winning, undefeated streak of 15 years. Along with multiple consecutive league sweeps, She also led the 2017 and 2018 teams to back to back Valley Championships. This year will be a year of trials, but there is no team stronger than the Rangers.

We look forward to seeing these Gormley and Adams play the number one and the number two spots in schools all across the valley. Good luck this season Lady Rangers!