Last Wednesday, on a cloudy afternoon, the RM girls varsity tennis team hosted division three champions from Blake High School in their final game of what had been a very successful season. Before the game, Coach Fahrner shared his thoughts: “We have a chance to finish 10 and 2, placing third in the county behind Walter Johnson and Wootton.”
The Rockets got off to a strong start, with almost everyone winning their first sets with ease.
However, the first doubles team of senior Isabelle Zhou and sophomore Katie Kolodner led 4-1 in the first set, but their opponents began to fight back. The Rockets began to play too aggressively, going for low percentage shots more frequently. As the unforced errors piled up, their opponents gained more and more confidence in possibly staging an upset. Ultimately, the Bengal Tigers were able to tie it up at 5-5 by maintaining more consistent plays than Zhou and Kolodner. “We were both hitting it really hard, and a lot of our shots were going out,” admitted Zhou. However, as the atmosphere intensified, first doubles was able to regain their focus and increase their level of play by motivating each other and changing their strategy, eventually taking the first set 7-5.
It was much of the same in the second set. The Rockets maintained their level of play, and won relatively easy against the discouraged Bengal Tigers.
First singles senior Ana Maria Escudero, second singles junior Piper Feldman, third singles junior Shefei Jiang, and fourth singles sophomore Cathy Yung were all able to claim decisive 6-0 6-0 victories by forcing errors from their opponents with controlled aggression.
The girls team won 7-0 in a landslide victory, clinching the third spot in the county. For the first in RM history, the doubles teams went undefeated against all their opponents, sweeping division 1 competition.
Captain Erin Frey summed up the season, “Our goal is always to stay in D1, and we did it again. Our doubles played exceptionally well, even against the tennis powerhouses.” The girls motivated each other with constant encouragement throughout the season. As Coach Fahrner stated, ”They love each other and compete for each other.”
Featured photo by Ita Teta.
