Team Spotlight: Girls’ Tennis

By: Staff Writer Andrew Choi

MSJ’s Girls’ Tennis team ended their regular season with a bang on Thursday, October 30, as they defeated Kennedy High School by a score of 7-0. They finished their season undefeated – quite a remarkable feat. The Smoke Signal interviewed one of the team’s two captains, senior Hannah Folk, to talk about the team’s accomplishments and future plans.

Smoke Signal: How well did the team perform this year?

Hannah Folk: We performed extremely well as we were the undefeated league champions. Our coach has been coaching for 27 years and this is only the second time that she has had an undefeated team.

SS: What were some of the team goals for this season?

HF: Coming into this season we knew we wanted to be league champions, given that it hadn’t happened the past two seasons. We worked extremely hard to find dedicated players before tryouts. Then we knew we needed to work on fitness every single day in order to improve our performances on the court. These two things were key to our success this season.

SS: What does the future look like for the team?

HF: This year we had seven incoming juniors leave and only three stay. Fortunately we were able to recover from this loss with 13 new players, which is more than half of our team. Since the majority of these new players are underclassmen, I know that the future of the team is in good hands. This year our number one was a freshman, Janet Han, so we have a pretty young team.

SS: What was the team’s most impressive win this year?

HF: This year’s most impressive win was by far against James Logan High School. The way tennis works is that there are seven total varsity matches played and you have to win at least four of them to win as a team. We had one remaining doubles match at the end that was really intense and the whole team was cheering them on. Under pressure, those two girls managed to pull through and gain a win for Mission. Then we faced Logan a second time and the same thing occurred. Everyone on this team is really proud of those two wins and we’re extremely proud of the team this year.

SS: What remains for the team to accomplish this season?

HF: Right now, varsity is in post-season. We played in the MVALS tournament, and had two players and two teams in the singles’ and doubles’ semifinals, respectively. We ended up placing second in both. NCS is on November 11 and 13 and we hope to get past the first round this year. That is most definitely a possibility with the kind of team that we have built this year.

Photo Courtesy: Photo 360