Girls' Tennis Places Fourth at de Villafranca Tournament at Kent

Phillips Exeter’s girls’ varsity A tennis team placed fourth in the annual de Villafranca tournament at Kent School in Kent, CT., after a difficult day of unpredictable conditions.On the roster for the day were co-captains seniors Nicole Yoon and Giulia Olsson with prep Taylor Jean-Jacques and lower Callan Malone. Jean-Jacques and Yoon, as the usual #1 and #2 players on the team, respectively, played in their respective singles draws while Malone and Olsson competed in the doubles draw as a team.Exeter’s girls faced many challenges as soon as they stepped onto the courts and before they even got a chance to size up their opponents.Although many schools in the league, including Phillips Exeter, have hard courts, the girls had to quickly learn to fine-tune their play for Kent’s clay courts, which feature a much different feel such as slower play and higher bounce.In addition, the day was unfortunately marred by on-and-off rain, which made it even tougher to play on clay courts that were sensitive to humidity.In addition, the players were not accustomed to the format for the singles draws. The set up required everyone to play one eight-game pro-set, starting at 1-1 with no-ad scoring.This required Yoon and Jean-Jacques not only to remain consistent and not make errors, but also to close points out quickly with their winners when given the opportunity.Because of the sheer number of obstacles to overcome at the tournament, the four girls got off to a shaky start, which placed all of them on the consolation side of the double elimination draws.The girls did not let their initial losses faze them, they rebounded well after their losses, focusing on things within their control and applying the skill sets they had been working on in their practices leading up to the tournament.In the end, Yoon won the #2 singles consolation draw, and Malone and Olsson claimed a finalist spot in the doubles consolation draw.Overall, Exeter placed fourth with 24 points as a team. Hotchkiss and Kingswood-Oxford claimed first with 39 points, followed by Kent with 27 points and Greenwich Academy with 24.5.Although the results were not as stellar as hoped, those who went to the de Villafranca tournament are maintaining a positive attitude, looking ahead to closing out the season with better wins.Malone said that she was very pleased with her achievements with Olsson as a doubles team.“We finally worked together in our movements and strategies to beat teams that we would have previously lost to,” she said. “Now, we hope to focus on really fine-tuning those strategies to come out on top against Groton and Andover. I am incredibly proud of our team and our results this weekend.”Yoon also looked on the bright side of the tournament. “Experience is something we got out of the tournament, especially since the majority of us were playing out in the rain on clay,” she said. “It’s always nice to play against teams we wouldn’t meet otherwise during the season.”