Girls’ Tennis Sweeps St. Paul’s

Last Saturday, the girls’ varsity tennis team hosted St. Paul’s in the new Thompson Field House. Big Red won with an impressive score of 9-0, continuing their winning streak this season and raising their season record 3-0.

“Isobel and I managed to come out with the dub in the end, and were happy that we were able to play through a shaky match and come out with a win,”

Going into the match, the team was not sure what to expect, as it had never competed against St. Paul’s in the regular season. St. Paul’s was previously part of the Independent School League, which limited opponents to sixteen member schools. But this year, St. Paul’s dropped out in order to expand their playing field, allowing Exeter to compete with them.

Upper Isobel Anderson believed that despite the match being the hardest so far this season, Exeter’s high-margin win clearly demonstrated the skills of Big Red players. “St. Paul’s was probably the toughest team we’ve played this season, but it wasn’t too much of a challenge for us,” said Anderson.

Senior and co-captain Gabby Gabel was also confident going into the match. “I think we were expecting what we got: a 9-0 win, however, I was personally not expecting a very close doubles match,” said Gabel.

During their doubles match, Gabel and Anderson faced challenges with keeping consistency towards the end, but still performed strongly. “Isobel and I managed to come out with the dub in the end, and were happy that we were able to play through a shaky match and come out with a win,” said Gabel.

Anderson considered the doubles match her favorite moment of the game because of its fact pace and intensity. “Gabby and I were both at the net in a quick paced volley rally, which we ended up winning,” said Anderson.

Another highlight of the match was Gabel’s single match, which stood out to upper Elizabeth Yang, especially with the team coming together to support theircaptain. “Gabby played her singles match at the end, and both teams were able to support our players. It was a great way to come together as a team and cheer on our captain!” Yang said.

Before coming into the game, the team worked tirelessly on their skills for doubles matches. “The team was really working on doubles play, specifically volleying and coming to net,” said Gabel. In addition, consistency and having a determined mental game was another key component the team has worked on. “The team has been focusing on consistency and being able to stay in long rallies without losing focus,” said Anderson.

This season, the girls’ hope to keep up their momentum with the impressive wins. Anderson hopes that the team will also finish off the season with a win against Andover, and is optimistic about a victory. “We have a really good chance this year because of our lineup so I think we can pull it off,” said Anderson.

Gabel shared similar sentiments as Anderson, and added, “This season, we are beating Andover.”

The next game the girls will be playing is a home game versus the Northfield Mount Hermon School on Saturday at 4:00 PM.