John Jay Varsity Tennis Comes to a Close

As the season of Girls Varsity Tennis began, there were mixed feelings and thoughts going through everyone’s mind. Attempting to impress our incoming coach, everyone was very nervous for what was to come. A new rule was put into place this year that limited the team to only 16 girls, four less than last year, which put a lot more pressure on all the girls trying out. In addition, we lost 12 seniors, who carried the team as a whole last year. With the odds stacked against us, we lost a lot more matches than we did last year.  We were able to qualify three doubles teams and one singles team to the conference finals, but unfortunately, no teams were able to make it to sectionals.

Due to our impressive record last year, we were moved to Section One. This meant that we would be playing teams that were a lot more skilled, including Rye, Harrison, Byram Hills, and Fox Lane. We played each of them twice this season and, although we were not able to beat many of them, the matches were close. Competing in Section One was a challenge for everyone on the team, but as the season progressed, we were able to rise to the occasion.

In our conference, one of the doubles teams made it to the second round by defeating a team from over the Tappan Zee, though they eventually lost to Rye in the second round. Another doubles team defeated Somers and Henry Hudson, but lost in a tough match to Byram Hills. The last doubles team defeated Hen Hud and Ardsley but lost to Harrison in the third round. Unfortunately, our singles player had a first round match up and lost in a very close match.

All in all, getting used to a new coach was difficult in the beginning but ended up being just what the team needed after losing a coach last year. Although the season started off rocky, we were able to pull through in the end and win a few important matches which ultimately qualified people for conference. We will be losing nine seniors next year but we are excited to build on the season we had this year.