A varsity tennis player practices her swings with her partner for their upcoming game. The varsity tennis team has been working as a team to practice for their solo games in the spring following their triumphant fall season.

Whack! Whack! Whack! The sound a tennis ball makes against a racket booming across the school, signaling the start of a new tennis season. This season brings a new set of team players, goals and accomplishments.

Divided into two main seasons, the fall season commenced with anticipation for the season to start due to the success from last season. During the previous spring season solo competitions, junior Ananya Sriniketh brought both her fellow teammates and head tennis coach Renee Richardson-Archibald immense glee for her succession to district, region, and then finally to being a state qualifier, the only member of the team to be one for that season. 

“She’s [ Sriniketh ] is coming back again this season, so we’re excited to see if she can go even farther this season,” said Richardson-Archibald.

With a huge chunk of seniors from last year leaving the team, Richardson-Archibald’s team is left with a young, but determined team of over 100 tennis players. Practice with the team is more focused this season, with an emphasis on accuracy, consistency and repetition to help the team mature in their skills. Fortunately, this season, Richardson-Archibald has the help of coach Donald Piantanida to help manage the team. 

“His [ Coach Piantanida ] help has been nice,” said Richardson-Archibald. “Because last year I did it by myself, and we have a lot of tennis players.”

Hoping to recreate their success from last season, one of Richardson-Archibald’s goals for her team this year is to make it to regional quarter-final, and hopefully to advance past it as well, due to the repeated attendance to region. Similarly, senior Sarus Chockalingam has this goal in mind. In order to make it to regionals, Chockalingam is taking the steps to cultivate her skills throughout the season. Before each game she does what she calls self-talk routines, hyping herself up for games so she can perform to her best ability. 

“I motivate myself during games through self-talk routines which is basically taking a minute in between points to reset, forget about the score, and just think about what I need to change tactically in order to be successful,” said Chockalingam. 

Having a successful win against Katy for their first match, followed by a string of wins, Richardson-Archibald hopes that their hard work taken in the fall season will influence their competitions positively into the spring season.

“…in spring season, we want to try to go to state again with a couple different entries, it would be good for the team,” said Richardson-Archibald