On Saturday, April 15, Girls’ Varsity Tennis suffered a tough loss to the Hotchkiss Bearcats in the first game of their Founder’s League season. Despite the outcome of the match, Head Coach, Mr. Kevin Rogers, remains optimistic about the rest of the season, saying that it was “a good match for us.”
Notorious for their racket sports, the Hotchkiss girls have been dominating the Founder’s League for the last decade. Madison Mandell ’18, said “We played a really tough opponent, and they beat a team that we lost to 8-9-0, so they are very strong tennis players. They are top of the ladder, and they’re young, but they’re really good, so that gave us some tough matches.” However, Choate’s team is not something to sneeze at. With new additions to the team, both coaches and players say that this season is looking to be very good, even though it started off a little rocky.
Although they lost, Choate kept Hotchkiss on their toes. Mr. Rogers explained that they had a pretty challenging day because “two of our top six are out, so we have people playing above their spot on the ladder. But we held our own.”
The girls played strong doubles matches, despite last minute changes. Caroline Quinn ’18 spoke about the hardships that came up prior to the match, saying “the injuries we had affected our doubles pairings. Additionally, people had to move up on the ladder and rise to the opportunity, and overall I think that we all played well.” The first doubles team lost 8-5, and the second team lost 8-4, which proved to be very close matches given the tough Hotchkiss team.
Unlike the doubles matches, the Choate girls did prevail in singles matches, with Polina Ermoshkina ’19 and Charlotte Craig ’18 winning their respective matches. Other matches were also close; players Caroline Quinn ’18, Rachel Proudman ’19, and Madeline Horn ’19 played strong matches as well. Overall, the girls represented Choate Tennis very well. Assistant Coach, Mr. Craig Johnson, was very proud of the girls; he said, “We are a young team, but we do not play like a young team. We are a hard working team, and as a coach, that’s all that you can ask for.” He went on to say that the results from Saturday prove that there still lots of room for improvement.
After the match, the girls reflected on the outcome. Mandell said, “Today is a learning experience. Now we know exactly what we need to practice next week.” It is still early in their season, so they have time to improve and establish themselves in the Founders League.
