Varsity Girls Tennis Opens Season with Narrow Defeat 5-4 Against Bishop O’Dowd

Top Row (L to R): Emily Roberts, Sadie Moise, Grace Colaco, Grace Britto, Tatum McElhattan, Jadith LaBonge, Audrey Parkin, Molly Jones, Hetty Lofting Bottom Row (L to R): Aamena Shipchandler, Sienna Moise, Hannah Wisniewska, Ridhi Patel, Kate Widmann

Welcome to the 2024 Girls Varsity Tennis Team! After having a relatively young team last year, this year’s team has high hopes for a successful season as many of the girls are returning, and the team also welcomed a number of seasoned players from last year’s JV team along with one new frosh player, Sadie Moise. The dedicated coaching staff of Sharon Langtry (Head Coach), Joe Schottland (Assistant Coach), and Alex Duff (Assistant Coach) are all returning from last year.

To kick off the season, the team travelled to Merritt College in Oakland to take on a tough Bishop O’Dowd team, who finished the 2023 campaign with a 22-4 record overall (8-0 in league play). Despite the formidable opponent, the girls made a vailant effort and narrowly lost 5-4.

On the singles side, Junior Aamena Shipchandler played Line 1, Senior Piper Duff Line 2, Junior Emily Roberts Line 3, Sophomore Grace Colaco Line 4, Senior Sienna Moise Line 5, and Senior Kate Widmann Line 6. On the doubles side, Juniors Lauren Foster and Ridhi Patel played Line 1, Sophomore Hetty Lofting and Senior Hanna Wisniewska played Line 2, and Junior Grace Britto and Sophomore Riley Zirkel played Line 3.

Winners in singles were Aamena, Emily, and Sienna (Molly Jones also got a win in one of the exhibition matches).  Kate narrowly lost her match 7-5, 6-4, and was voted player of the match. On the doubles side, Grace Britto and Riley won with an impressive 7-5, 6-4 final score. Three matches came down to 3rd set tiebreakers, so the overall result could have gone either way.

The teams forms the usual pre-match “conga line” announcing the matchups

Grace Colaco (L), Aamena Shipchandler (R), and the rest of the team are ready to go

Grace Britto (L) and Riley Zirkel (R) win in their varsity debut