After several down years, the Masters’ girls’ varsity tennis team has recently finished one of their best seasons in a long time. The team ended the year with a 10-5 record. Their success can be attributed to the addition of new players and strong leadership from senior captains Sofia Benson and Alex Batson.

Junior and third singles’ player Anastasiia Gorobets said, “I think we did well, partially because we got two really strong players, freshmen Hanna Schiciano and Carolina (Carol) Queiroz.” Gorobets also mentioned that when the team realized their newfound success, they started to become more committed and excited about the game.

Assistant coach Dr. William Roberts explained the basis for the team’s improvement.  “Well, I think there were several reasons for our winning; one was some of our players are getting older and more experienced,” he said. “Each year the team tries very hard and they work well together, but I thought that this year the team had particularly good chemistry.” Roberts added, “I think our doubles ability improved. We’ve developed several teams that played very well together, and winning some of these doubles matches contributed to our success.”

Kira Ratan, a sophomore who played top spot singles last season during her freshman year, was pushed down to second spot singles because of the new player addition, Hanna Schiciano, who took over the top spot. This led to Ratan winning more matches, which contributed to the overall success of the team. 

Greg Lesser, the team’s head coach, said, “On any team if you get someone who’s going to come in at the top of the lineup, it helps everybody else. It helps the depth of the team because people are playing opponents who are at their level [of skill], but if all the players are bumped down, then oftentimes they’re playing people who are not as skilled as them.”

Out of the ten matches the team won, six of them were clean sweeps, meaning they won each game at those specific matches. At the final senior match, all four of the singles and doubles matchups won their matches, defeating John F. Kennedy Catholic High 4-0.