On May 1, girls tennis competed against Interlake and concurrently held their senior night to honor their sole senior member, captain Ishita Kansal (she/her). Head coach Jane Demerath (she/her) reminisced on Kansal’s time on the team.
“I’ve known Ishita since she was young, and she’s always worked hard,” Demerath said. “One thing with Ishita is that she listens, and she follows what you said. She’s very respectful, and you know she is accountable. She’s the team captain this year, and she does her business. She’s a very sweet girl.”
Kansal shared a few of her memories on the team, many of which included team bonding.
“At the beginning of every season, we have a practice where, during the last hour, we just all split up and make different ideas for chants that we’re going to do before the game. And that’s always really fun, because it becomes a fun contest between us,” Kansal said. “We also make bagels during home games, and that’s a really nice tradition we have.”
Following the senior night celebration, the team took to the court against Interlake in what proved to be a competitive and spirited match. Despite their spirited performance, the team ultimately lost 0-6. Still, the match featured several competitive sets and moments of strong teamwork from the team that demonstrated growth over the course of the season.
“The growth is pretty good. I mean, a bunch of these girls were JV players,” Demerath said. “They stood in the blue (court) instead of outside the baseline, so that one’s a big improvement. They played in the ‘no-man’s land’ (space between baseline and half-court) before. Now, a lot of them are moving out to near the baseline, and they’re striking the ball a lot better. And we’ve been working on groundstrokes, so that has helped a lot.”
Demerath said that volleys and serves have been a focus of their practices, and junior Ella Oprea (she/her) has been continuously improving on them.
“I’ve been struggling to volley,” Oprea said. “A volley is when you’re basically at the net and you have to hit the ball without letting it bounce. You also don’t really move your racket. You just kind of high-five the ball, in a way. But I get nervous at the net, so I’m just doing drills to improve my weaknesses.”
With serves, Demerath said that consistency is difficult. To combat this, many of them practice with double poles, otherwise known as tetherballs. These help them practice the serve overall.
“The girls just cannot find a rhythm while serving. A serve is one of those skills that needs a lot of time to practice,” Demerath said.
To compensate for this, junior Maanya Venkat (she/her) said Demerath has been applying an intense routine during practice. Venkat explained that everyone arrives early to practice, since Demerath is adamant on punctuality.
“Then we run two laps around the court and do dynamic warmups — things like lunges, side shuffles, and suicide lines,” Venkat said. “After that, we do a 10-minute warm-up. We warm up our ground strokes and do mini tennis in the service box. And then we warm up ground strokes, volleys, serves, and anything else that we need to do. And then, depending on what we’re doing that day, we’ll either play practice matches or we’ll do drills.”
Despite the heavy schedule, the hard work this season has paid off. The team won both their matches against Bothell, first with a 5-2 score and then with a 6-1 score.
“We were kind of close this year, but we won, so I think that was key. And then whenever we play, we’re just super focused on doing well and just having fun,” Kansal said.
Demerath said that the greatest part of this season is that the team has had great chemistry, and it’s only getting better.
“I have amazing kids, and that’s the big thing. And they’re respectful, they’re delightful to be around and they work hard; they listen,” Demerath said. “I think that’s what I enjoy with coaching, being able to help them. And there’s some girls that really ask for help, and I see the improvement.”
