Tennis Team Opens Season With Strong Performance

THEY’RE BACK! On Wednesday afternoon, the long-awaited return of UA TENNIS finally happened. In 2008, the team was named Regional Champions on their way to a fourth place finish in the state. For a sport that tends to be overlooked and not the recipient of a lot of media coverage, the members of UA TENNIS quietly won the support of the student body by the completion of last season. “Wow, I had no idea our tennis team was that good” was a comment said by multiple students. Now that the school is aware that the team is a major player in the local tennis community, expectations have risen for these young ladies. On Wednesday afternoon, we were given our first look at the team when UA TENNIS battled Mt. Carmel Academy.

Coach Erin Leblanc brought eight of her players to the courts for the 5 matches. There would be three doubles matches and two singles matches. Returning this year was UA TENNIS’ power duo of Sarah Meyer ‘10 and Tyler Castillo ‘10. Last year, these two went deep in the playoffs.

The doubles duo’s success was only matched by the singles play of Jasmine Roussell ‘09. Rousell ‘09 has returned for her senior season and is expected to be the leader of this year’s team.

Also playing in today’s matches were the doubles of Alex Vallon ‘10 and Julia McGavern ‘12 and the doubles of Caitlin Kirkwood ‘09 and Brennan Ferguson ‘11. The final match would be contested by senior Ashley Guillaume ‘09.

With five matches being contested at the same time, fans were allowed to walk throughout the UNO tennis complex and watch whichever match they were interested in. Fans would watch a few minutes of one match, and then move to the next. With five matches on schedule, the school that one three matches would be considered the winner.

When the afternoon matches were complete, Mt. Carmel had won the head to head competition by a score of 5 – 0. “The scores do not reflect the actual play of the team. This year we still have a lot of younger players with experience levels that are not equal to the experience and skills of today’s opponent”, stated Coach Erin Leblanc. Coach Leblanc’s coaching staff expanded this year with the addition of her daughter Ms. Mairin Leblanc ‘03. The first year coach was quick to keep things in perspective. “The competition was VERY good for the opening match. It is good that we are going to play many strong teams early in the season. This will make us prepared for the later part of the year”.

On Thursday, UA TENNIS will play Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart and UA TENNIS are in the same region. Therefore, both teams will want to bring their A game to the match. “Today, there were a lot of jitters out there. We did not play our best. A number of small mistakes we can improve on by tomorrow. Today was a great practice round for the game against Sacred Heart”, replied Head Coach Erin Leblanc.

Tags: High School