Week six of the girls’ tennis season represents the midpoint for the spring season. This year, it doesn’t seem like halfway, as numerous rain-outs have limited match play and cut into practice time. Still, the girls started the week with a 3-0 record and were looking forward to better weather and stiffer competition. They got both.
After a nice sunny day for practice last Monday, the Pirates hosted Charles Wright. Always a tough match-up, Charles Wright is usually a good indicator as to how the team is progressing. The Pirates lost the Charles Wright match 3-2, but had some high points. The match could have gone either way and this was a good result for the team. The girls split the two singles matches with Hanna Nelson winning at number two singles in her first match at that position.
The Pirates were competitive, but also lost to a strong Charles Wright team at number one doubles. But, Vashon pulled out a very tight win at number three doubles where Tobin Vaughn and Emme Osborne won in a third-set tiebreaker.
Charles Wright won the back-and-forth battle at number two doubles to seal the match overall. The close loss provided some great experience for the players and good input for coaches.
On Thursday, Franklin Pierce promised to show up even if the weather stayed rainy. That turned out to be great call, as the sun came out for a perfect afternoon of tennis. Vashon jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead with Lizzy Maciejewski and Hanna Nelson winning their singles matches. For some time, the Pirates were ahead or even in all three doubles matches and looked to be on their way to another win. However, the strength of Franklin Pierce is in its doubles teams and they were able to bounce back and sweep the doubles for a 3-2 win. Again, this was an excellent learning experience for the team, and in both the wins and the losses there were some really impressive points and strong evidence of improvement .
The Vashon junior varsity team also had a really good week developing their skills, getting comfortable with match play, gathering experience and getting some wins in two matches. Since only eight players can play in the varsity match, the JV matches often have varsity players scattered throughout both teams lineups. For Vashon, many varsity players turn in excellent efforts and results in the JV matches.
This week also gave some of the newer players a chance to play their first match. Turning in some great efforts were Ashley McArthur, Sara Cooper, Maggie Battisti, Lia Crawford, Margot Armstrong, Sequoia Gregorich, Aislin Pinckney and Charlotte Tysver.
This year’s JV team has worked really hard at practice in some challenging weather conditions, and deserve a lot of credit for their improvement this season.
— Pat Mulvihill is a coach for the Vashon High School girls’ tennis team.
