On October 11, the Irvington girls tennis team wrapped up their senior night with a resounding 7-0 victory over Newark in both the varsity and junior varsity divisions. The victory put them on track to become the number three team in the Mission Valley Athletic League, behind Mission San Jose and American High School.

The cool Wednesday afternoon provided a comfortable backdrop to Irvington’s breezy wins. The players finished their games quickly, giving them plenty of time to socialize and celebrate their seniors afterward.

Many players noticed improvements in their performance throughout the season. 

“We can now understand each other without yelling like we used to,” explained Avani Tibrewal (10), who plays JV doubles. “We used to yell, ‘front,’ ‘back,’ ‘mine,’ ‘yours,’ but in the last few games we’ve been doing that a lot less, and we’re doing better because of it.”

“The girls are doing a better job of keeping balls in play, and their consistency has gotten a lot better,” commended Coach Barry Poole. He also recognized the overall unity of the team this year: “This has been a very cohesive group that is almost too cohesive in some ways. Everybody hung with everybody. Everybody worked with everybody.”

Team captain Tiffany Pan (12) agreed with this assessment. “I didn’t realize me and the other captains would gel so well with each other,” she explained, “because while last year’s seniors were pretty extroverted, this year’s captains were all introverts. As it turns out, things happened pretty well, to the point where I’m officially called a ‘mom’ by the underclassmen. They’re not afraid to come to me and talk, and they don’t mind if we come to them and say, ‘Hey, we gotta fix this up.’”

After their senior night, the team finished out its remaining games, beating Moreau 6-0 but losing 1-6 in its rematch against Mission San Jose.