Girls' Tennis Loses Steam At Season's End

Leaving behind a 2-5 season and the de- parture of two, dedicated captains in Kathleen Larkin ’12 and Lauren Lee ’12, Big Red’s girls’ varsity A tennis team sought to over- come their dif culties and take their game to the next level.Under the guidance and leadership of senior co-captains Nicole Yoon and Giulia Olsson, the squad gained an optimistic out- look on the upcoming season. Along with other changes, the girls welcomed prep Taylor Jean-Jacques, who played on the top spot for #1 singles, and truly demonstrated athleticism on the courts.The season began with two scrimmages against Middlesex Academy and Governor’s Academy, which allowed the team to gauge its position in the league. After these scrimmages, the of cial season got off to a great begin- ning, resembling last year’s strong start. Big Red swept 9-0 in against NMH, and clinched another victory against Tabor with a score of 7-2 a week later.After the 2-0 start, the team faced one of its most formidable opponents, Phillips Academy. Andover, an age-old rival of Exeter, always posed a tough challenge against Exeter in girls’ tennis. Leading up to this “mid-season E/a,” the team prepared well, keeping in mind Andover’s biggest strength: the admirable on- court consistency of their players.Unfortunately, Exeter lost 2-7 against Andover, which temporarily broke the team’s winning streak and good spirits. However, the girls looked at the loss in positive light, taking it to be a source of motivation and preparation for some of the best teams in the New England region that they would have to play against.

The team did not make the quickest re- covery, suffering one more loss against Milton Academy, another strong team, by a score of 3-6. However, the one of the highlights of the season came in the following meet against Choate Rosemary Hall.Last year, the girls had lost to Choate in a hard-fought, yet one-sided battle, with a 2-7 record. This year, however, the girls were able to focus their drive and athleticism to clinch a close and exciting 5-4 victory.Choate has been a tough opponent for us over the past few years and this year we brought our top game to the court,” Jean- Jacques said. “Choate's varsity team has typi- cally been at a similar playing level compared to our team, so we knew we could win, and we did so.”Yoon agreed. “It de nitely was a huge boost for our team,” she said.A week after the success, the team at- tended one of its largest events of the season: the annual de Villafranca Tournament at Kent School in Kent, CT. Although highly antici- pated, many unpredictable and new situations troubled the girls during this tourney. Unlike the majority of the court surfaces throughout New England, Kent sported clay courts, which provided slower play. The weather, which consisted of on-and-off rain, also added to the challenge of clay court play.Scoring also became a source of experi- ment on tournament day, as the singles draw played one pro set, starting at 1-1, with no-ad scoring, making the matches much shorter and necessitating great focus on the athletes’ part.At the end of the day, Yoon won the #2 singles consolation draw, while Olsson and lower Callan Malone lost in the nals of the competitive doubles consolation draw. Exeter claimed 4th place with 24 points after Hotchkiss and Kingswood-Oxford tying for 1st with 39 points, Kent with 27 points, and Greenwich with 24.5 points.After the tournament, the team faced a dif cult time adjusting back, losing to Groton and failing to qualify for the New England Championships. The gear shifted to focusing on the spring Exeter/Andover games, where unfortunately, the team lost 3-6. However, overall, Big Red had a much closer meet than the mid-season one against Andover, showing their improvement throughout the latter half of the season.Jean-Jacques was proud of the work that the team had done during the season. “We did a great job of giving each other advice regard- ing our strategies and techniques during match play. This was important in supporting our victories and made our team close,” she said.Senior Anna Gruen drew to her experi- ence in becoming closer with the other seniors on the team, Yoon and Olsson, as a source of motivation that was imperative to the success of the team.“I think that the three of us A team senior girls really established a strong bond both as team mates and as strong friends,” Gruen said. “In the future years, the girls are going to need to connect as a team in the same way that Giulia, Nicole and I were able to this past season.”Goingforward,Maloneidenti edsome of the things that the team could work on to take their game even further. “I think the big- gest thing we could improve on is knowing when to play consistently and then knowing when to nish points quickly,” she said. “In the coming years, I think we need to work more, not on our skill, but our point play strategies.”Jean-Jacques remained hopeful of her coming years on the team. “As dive further into my years at Exeter we hope to continue to build up our tennis team, advance to New England's and become champions,” she said.The captain-elect for the girls’ varsity A tennis team is upper Meagan Dashcund, who will step up from her position on the B team to add her fresh perspective and sense of responsible leadership to the team.