The JV Girls Tennis team faced Miramonte Tuesday afternoon in their first league match and continued the strong play they have shown so far this season! Overall, the match ended up tied at 6-6, but the Dons had the edge, taking 2 of the 4 singles matches and the first three lines of doubles matches. In singles, our lineup was…
On Saturday, the Varsity girls tennis team traveled to Freedom High School in Oakley. Although the calendar read September 14, it felt more like July 4. The game was played at Freedom High School (editor’s note: the phrase “Let Freedom Ring” comes from it’s use in the Song “America” written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831, which Dr. Martin Luther…
Following the last girls varsity tennis article, I was deluged with angry comments that I broke with my usual “creative” writing style from last year to just report what happened. Ok, I realize that only a couple people actually read these articles, so it would be hard to consider that a “deluge”, but trust me, they were upset. So I…
Welcome to the Girls JV Tennis Team! Under the leadership of our wonderful coach Lee Ann Gove, we have an energetic team with a large number of incoming freshman. To start our season, we hosted Bishop O’Dowd at Acalanes on August 27 for a preseason match. It was a strong showing for the Dons, winning 13-1. On the singles side,…
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…
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…
Although Major Walter Clopton Wingfield patented a hourglass shaped court in 1874 as part of his “New and Improved Court for Playing the Ancient Game of Tennis”, most tennis courts throughout history have been rectangular, measuring 78 feet long, 36 feet wide (27 feet for singles), with service lines 21 feet from the net. Grass courts are the most traditional tennis…
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…
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…
As I sat down to write this article, I was thinking that I was running out of content having talked about the history of tennis, scoring, the US Open, rackets, balls, and so forth. Although I came up with a few other ideas that could show up in future articles, I thought I would dedicate this one to female athletes for…