There are 4 types of serves in tennis. A flat serve, hit with a Continental or Eastern grip, is hard and powerful, making it ideal for a first serve. A slice serve creates sidespin, which can cause the ball to bounce farther away when hit into the outer corner of the service box, or right into your opponent’s body when hit down the “T”. A kick serve is a heavy topspin serve that takes a lot of practice to master. And last but not least, an underhand serve is mostly used by children or injured players, but also by unconventional professionals like Australian Nick Kyrgios who has used it successfully in high pressure situations like his match against Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2019.

On Thursday, the Varsity Girls Tennis team brought their serves (mainly flat with a few slices) to Walnut Creek as they took on Northgate for a rematch. The singles lineup was unchanged as Aamena Shipchandler played Line 1, Grace Colaco Line 2, Emily Roberts Line 3, Sienna Moise Line 4, Nicole Parlett Line 5, and Lilou Picard Line 6. Emily lost in straight sets to a very tough opponent, but was named player of the match by her teammates for her great effort.

The doubles lineup consisted of Lucy O’Brien and Olivia Dawkins playing Line 1, Lauren Foster and Ridhi Patel Line 2, and Jadith LaBonge and Hanna Wisniewska Line 3. Jadith and Hanna came back from a first set loss to win the second set before losing 10-8 in the tiebreaker. Lauren and Ridhi won again, pulling out the only victory for the Dons 6-4, 6-3.

Please come out on Thursday, October 12 to celebrate the seniors on Senior Night from 3:00-3:30pm followed by the matches against Las Lomas at 4pm.