Girls Tennis Season 2017

Madelyn Jones, Staff Writer

Girls Tennis experienced much growth amid a rough 2017 season.  A bright spot for the team was Varsity player, Jada Tarnovsky who won 11/14 matches, and 1 win at #1 singles.  An obstacle that the girls tennis team had this season was a lack of practicing due to poor weather.

  “I think the tennis season went great this year because I got a chance to go to state,” Tarnovsky said.

  Tarnovsky and Chelsea Davis teamed up and placed third in districts. By placing third in districts, they qualified to go to state.

  Head coach Alan Simpson, has been immensely supportive, and he encourages the team to go out there and try their best, even if it’s a school that has a history of winning. Along with that, he provides the team little key advice so he can improve their playing on the court.

  “My goal in tennis is to enjoy it as much as possible and continue to learn from inevitable mistakes,” Varsity player, Kate Alngog said. Strengths that the team has is good communication and teamwork. The relationships that the team builds encourages the girls to come to practices.

  Practices were suppose to be everyday from 2:45-4:00 p.m but the weather cut into their practices and sadly they didn’t have a lot of practices.

  “The tennis season was fun because I got to play top varsity,” Julia Moss said.

  Playing top varsity was fun for Moss because she was able to play with more experienced players and it encouraged her to try harder. A weakness Moss experienced while playing for top varsity was lack of practices, and not having enough background in tennis.

  “This was my first year playing tennis and I found it to be challenging but I learned how to be more competitive,” Moss said.

  Clackamas High School was also a challenge to compete against because their individual skills and techniques were more advanced. There were some encouraging signs, as the girls team had plenty of athletes who made progress during the few practices they had.  

The Gophers are looking to recover from their 0-14 season this year by increasing their individual techniques and skills as well as increasing teamwork and communication over the summer and off season.