Girls tennis serves up a brand new season

The opposing team has secured a 40-love lead. Just one more point and the other team would win the match. But with the encouragement of teammates, Aragon advances to a duece score. The advantage is now Aragon’s.

A long suspenseful rally goes on for the last point, and the Aragon girls’ tennis team wins the match. Cheers all around ensue for this amazing come-from-behind victory.

The Aragon girls’ tennis season is underway this fall season. The team, coached by Ed Schuler and Dave Owdom, has over 30 members this year, making it a very competitive squad.

Only the top ten players on both varsity and frosh/soph will be able to play in the singles or doubles matches. This means every girl will be trying hard in practice to grab a spot for playing time.

Everyday, practice goes for a couple hours after school. This means a big portion of the girls’ lives involves tennis and dedication is needed to succeed. The players have a mix of conditioning, drills, and scrimmages to get fit and ready for the matches.

To get the competitive juices flowing during practices, Schuler and Owdom make the freshman play the juniors and the sophomores play the seniors. Then, the winners of those matches face off in the end. This provides a good experience for the younger players who will be facing older girls in their matches against other schools. It also simulates what happens in the real matches.

During the matches, there are four singles matches and three doubles matches. The girls are seeded and then play against the other school. A point is awarded for a win and the first team to earn four points is the winner.

Talking strategically on the matches, Schuler says, “We need to get the doubles matches won. That way, we only need a win or two from the singles.”

This is Coach Schuler’s eighth season at Aragon; he says this year’s team is the best he’s had. “The team is really good…They are all friends too and support each other,” Schuler explains.

Last year’s frosh/soph team went undefeated in the PAL Bay division, the highest division available. When asked about what the goal was this year for the team, sophomores Lauren Chan and Allison Kuo explained, “We want to go undefeated [and] improve on our skills from last year.” Schuler also said a goal for varsity is to make it to CCS and have a better record than last year.

Already, varsity defeated Notre Dame, Crystal Springs Uplands, Woodside Priory during the preseason. In their season opener, they beat Mills High School with the score 5-2.

Co-Captains Alice Liu, Cynthia Huang, Melody Ma, and Erica Bass are leading the team for their goal of the playoffs. The girls tennis team has a match today at San Mateo at 4:00 PM , and their next match will be held on Tuesday October 19 at Carlmont.