Girls' Tennis Falls to Big Blue

The girls’ varsity A tennis team suffered a loss to archrival Andover last Saturday, snapping their season-starting win streak with a final score of 2-7.Because of the strength of Andover’s girls’ tennis program, Big Red has not been able to claim a victory over them for the past few years. Knowing this, the team prepared thoroughly, practicing with rigor and motivation during the days leading up to the match."We were nervous about the match, but looked forward to playing Andover. They have some great players on their team," senior co-captain Nicole Yoon said.Lower Dana Tung agreed. "Andover has a very strong tennis team and it was definitely good competition for us. We went on the courts prepared to play our best," she said.After an hour-long delay due to a bus breakdown, the girls were finally able to get on the courts. Although Exeter’s players gave it their all once the matches began, Andover’s skill proved to be too large of an obstacle for Big Red to overcome.The only two victories on Saturday came from lower Callan Malone’s singles match. Malone triumphed 6-4, 6-2, and Yoon and senior Anna Gruen won in their doubles match by a score of 8-4.Malone believes that Andover’s forte is the consistency among players. "I didn't see much of the other girls’ singles matches, but if there is one thing to be said of Andover, it is that they rarely miss. They are not necessarily all powerhouses as much as they are incredibly consistent," she said. Malone accredited her performance to the fact that she was able to avoid many unforced errors in her own match.Despite the loss, Tung believes that the experience was a valuable one for her and her teammates going ahead with the rest of the season. "I think our match with Andover gave us an exposure to the tougher teams in New England. We will meet strong consistent players with good singles and doubles strategy in our coming up matches," Tung said. "Although we lost our matches to Andover, all of us learned a lot from our games and have something to work on during the next few weeks of practice."Malone agreed. "It was a tough day to see all the girls come off the court discouraged, but I think if we work hard and focus on our consistency, we have the ability to come out on top against Andover at the end of the season," she said.