On Tuesday, the Varsity Girls Tennis team traveled to Northgate High School for the Diablo Athletic League (DAL) Division Championship tournament. It was a record turnout as 16 Dons participated, two in singles and 14 in doubles (7 teams). Sophomore Aamena Shipchandler was seeded #6 on the singles side and advanced to the third round, and some of the other younger players, including first time doubles players, advanced to the second round. It was great to see the wins, and also great to see several seniors playing together for the last time.
It is said that victory isn’t defined solely by wins and losses, but also by effort. The team showed tremendous effort throughout the season, fighting hard in every match and winning many individual matches. They also improved throughout the season under the leadership of Coaches Schottland, Langtry, and Duff. And most importantly, they bonded as a team on and off the court.
I gave well deserved shout-outs to the seniors in the last article. For this final article, I wanted to recognize the underclassmen. On the singles side, Aamena, freshman Grace Colaco, and sophomore Emily Roberts played Lines 1-3 singles for most of the season after Piper Duff went down to injury, constantly facing the best players on the opposing teams who were oftentimes juniors and seniors. On the doubles side, sophomores Lauren Roberts and Ridhi Patel blossomed into a formidable team and were rewarded with more playing time by the coaches as the season progressed. The experience these girls gained this year should serve them well as they continue in their high school careers and should set up the program for future success in the years to come.
Along the way, I hope that I was able to not only give you at least a little bit of information about what happened during the matches, but also entertain and educate you about the history of the game, scoring, rackets, balls, nets, serve types, courts, and so forth. I guess now that the season is over I can confess that it is possible that none of it was factually accurate, but that is my story and I am sticking to it! Go Dons!
