Girls Make Great Strides from Past Seasons
Senior captain Meagan Dashcund points her left arm skyward. The ball reaches the peak of its parabolic trajectory and drops toward the crossed strings of Dashcund’s racket face. Although the ball is less than three inches wide, a player with Dashcund’s six years of experience sees the neon fuzz like a balloon. Her shadow projects down on the court, bent into a trophy position, like a Nike swoosh. Just do it. The overhead smash is her favorite shot. She will not waste this opportunity.
In a crisp whip of her shoulder and elbow, Dashcund sends the ball barreling down into the court. It slams into the green synthetic concrete and rockets back upwards, too fast and too strong, out of her opponent’s reach. Her Andover opponent on the other side of the net stands weary with disbelief. The mid-season Kent tournament draw put up what was supposed to be a one-sided matchup. However, Dashcund, the Big Red number five, had defied all of this Andover number two’s expectations, and went on to win the match.
Dashcund recalled the moment of victory, when her teammates and coach flooded onto the court and surrounded her in a sweaty embrace. Her play embodied the spirit of Exeter girls’ tennis, which despite steep obstacles, seized all opportunities, and left onlookers bewildered this season.
This season was not supposed to be easy. After losing seven of their 13 varsity players, including both co-captains and three of their top five, the girls, under Dashcund’s new leadership, produced overwhelming results. They went even at 4-4 this season, breaking 0.500 for the first time since the 2010 season. The three seasons before had not even come close. All that while battling constant injury and sickness.
Upper Helen Edwards commented on one of the season’s obstacles. “A few people got very sick and were out for half of the season, which was a major setback,” Edwards said. “A lot of people had to play up.”
Fortunately for the team, a surge of young talent kept them afloat, even while three players out of the top four sat out due to injury or sickness. Preps Connie Cai and Melissa Lu stepped up big for the team, playing crucial matches at the top of the varsity B ladder and bottom of the varsity A.
Upper Callan Malone, who played at the number two spot when she was healthy enough to be in the lineup, indicated that were it not for health issues, the team could have performed at an even higher level. “I think illness really brought the team down this year. We were constantly without one or two players, which made it hard to get in a steady groove,” Malone said. “We had a lot of new girls which was fun and challenging at the same time.”
While the girls stayed dominant, dismantling most of their competition, Andover turned the tables on them both early in the season and at spring E/A, leaving them with 0-9 losses each time. For a team that took four victories with ease, the fact that they could not take a single match off of Andover is perplexing.
Edwards mentioned that Andover has had a history of strong teams. “Andover has always been fairly dominant,” Edwards said.
However, Dashcund asserted that their results against Big Blue could have improved immensely had their season been injury-free. The team dynamic, especially in doubles pairings, Dashcund said, was a factor in these losses.
“It was difficult never having the full team together, and when people came back or left, the dynamic was a little messed up,” she said.
The inconsistency of the lineup showed sometimes, when injury would force switch-ups of the doubles pairs, partners could look uncomfortable on the court, not used to each other’s playing styles.
Although their otherwise successful season was derailed by injuries, upper captain-elects Caroline Lu and Dana Tung are optimistic about the coming 2015 season. The team will only graduate one senior, captain Meagan Dashcund, leaving a strong core of players for years to come. Tung hopes to cut out all inconsistencies from their games, citing mental fortitude as the best method of improvement.
“I think hitting a lot of ground strokes, sometimes with the ball machines, will build consistency for our games,” Tung said. “I think our matches will all come down to how focused we are during practice.”
Tung has her mind on the future, with detailed plans to lead the team to victory next year. “We only have one senior graduating, so next year we can really build off of everything we started this year,” Tung said. “I also want to organize more team dinners before matches. I hope to really get to know every player on the team.”
Dashcund agreed with Tung on the importance of the team being about the people more than just the game. “When I think back on this season, my favorite moment was after that Kent tournament match,” she said. “Not when I hit my best shots, or when I won the match. It was when my teammates surrounded me after the win. It reminded me that this season didn’t make me happy just because of our success, but because of the people.”