On Thursday, September 26th, Irvington Girls tennis played against Newark Memorial, continuing their strong momentum this season.
The game began with morale really high, and a lot of spirit in all of the players. Christine Chang (12) comments “Our team prepares for games by freaking out and stress eating. It’s a mad scramble to get everyone rides and there’s lots of nerves before every match, but snacks get us through it.”
“I am quite happy with our line up. We have lots of new girls who are strong single players who are able to string together strategies in the midst of their points. They’re getting creative and more comfortable switching it up to throw off their opponents,” Chang continues. With an already pretty successful season so far, many of the girls had very high hopes for this game as well.
A great amount of effort and determination went into preparing for this game. “We have practices four days a week, five if we feel like we need it. We’re always helping each other out through tips or rallies“ says Yashika Nammi (11).
Starting off the game, all the girls lined up respectively and faced their opponents. One by one, each player was called up and cheered for by their teammates, which “heavily impacted our morale” Yashika Nammi (11) explained. Following this, Irvington huddled up and performed their chant: “Our team is what, dynamite, our team is what, blue and white, our team is tik tik tik tik tik tik boom, dynamite.”
As the game began, varsity singles and doubles players went first, as the newer JV players sat in the sidelines. Constantly cheering loudly when their teammate scored a point, and providing great words of motivation when they didn’t, the team always made sure to look out for each other throughout the game.
Coming to a close, the players all had their heads up high knowing that they had won yet another game. “Winning today’s game was a great booster for all of us, but I definitely think that the girls know what we need to improve on individually. I’m really looking forward to working on these small fixes, and continuing this season stronger than before!” said Anjali Vellanki (12), co-captain of the team.
The second co-captain Christine Chang (12), was unable to make the match but commented on the huge improvements made from the start of the season. “I think our season started off slow, but has quickly improved. We had an entirely new lineup with lots of new players. In particular, our new doubles pairings, unfamiliar with playing together, suffered at the beginning of the season. However, as each doubles pair grew more comfortable with each other, I have heard more jokes and laughter from them.” As a captain, she looks over the team’s well-being and keeps an eye out for any improvements to be made in the future.
Another seasoned player talks about how this team has impacted them as an individual. Sayali Kale (11) says “Being on the tennis team is like having built-in best friends.” As tight-nit their family is, they still always find a way to keep each other motivated and always improving.
This season being one of their best yet, the team hopes to keep improving upon their skills, and stay on a winning streak for as long as possible. With the high morale, mixed with their strong bonds, the team seems unstoppable.
