Tennis court nets are 42” high at the posts and 36” high in the center.  They can be made from polyethylene, polyester, nylon, or steel mesh.  Although net posts are typically outside the alley in the “doubles” position, professional courts can also be set up with the posts in the “singles” position inside the alley.  Now for some fun facts on the net rules.  I think most of us know that a player or their racquet/clothing can’t touch the net, and a player can’t hit the ball before it crosses over the net.  But did you know that a player can hit around the net post or through the gap between the net post and the net as long as it doesn’t touch anything?  And did you know that a player can hit the ball if the ball bounces on a their side of the net and then goes back to the other side?  In fact, a player can even jump over the net and hit the ball as long as the point has ended before they land on the other side (public service announcement…I highly discourage anyone reading this to try that).

On Thursday, the Varsity Girls Tennis team welcomed Campo for a rematch. The good news is that, although the girls did come near the net and called out “let” on serves that hit the net, nobody tried to jump over the net.  The bad news is that Campo won 8-1, and in fact are 46-8 against the Dons over the last 3 years. 

The singles lineup was the same as the match against College Park.  Grace Colaco at Line 2, Emily Roberts and Line 3, and Lilou Picard at Line 6 all won their first sets but ultimately lost in third set tiebreakers. Lilou was named one of the players of the match. The doubles lineup shifted a bit as Lucy O’Brien and Olivia Dawkins returned to play Line 1, Anna MacLeod and Jadith Labonge played Line 2, and Lauren Foster and Ridhi Patel played Line 3. Lauren and Ridhi had a great match, winning the first set 6-3, losing the second 4-6, then winning an exciting tiebreaker 12-10. They were also named players of the match.

The team hits the road to play Northgate for their next match on Tuesday, Oct 10 at 4pm