As the school year begins to come to an end, so do many of the spring sports here at Warren, the girls tennis team being one of them. With the regular season starting to come to a close, preparations for the rest of the season, sectionals and beyond have begun.
The tennis team has one regular-season match left against Pike on May 19 and is hoping to close out the regular season with a bang.
“I want us to end the season with a winning record,” junior Karsyn Asher. “This is the first time in school history that we have been able to hold our own against schools, and we have a chance to go far in the state tournament. Individually, I hope my mental game improves. I have struggled this year with mental burnouts.”
With sectionals also quickly approaching, the players have been using all of their matches to get better and improve in preparation for it. Many of them have seen significant improvements throughout the season and have set goals for sectionals.
“To prepare for the sectional, I'm setting goals such as getting better at playing at the net and learning to reset my mindset when a match doesn't go the way I intend it to,” senior Lindsey Wessling said.
Senior Diana Cabrera-Lopez, her teammate, has noticed similar improvements.
“I definitely do see improvement compared to the beginning of the season,” she said. “My serves are looking better. I tend to double fault less than [at] the beginning of the season.”
Along with the players, Coach Jonn Patterson is also looking forward to the end of the season and on to sectionals. Setting many goals for the remainder of the season, he has high hopes for the team.
“[I hope] for our team to be playing at its peak level, to play for and win the sectional title,” Patterson said.
This has also given the opportunity for the seniors on the team to reflect on their high school careers and look forward to their last sectional competition.
“Knowing that the end of this season is coming gives me many emotions, but the main one is sadness,” senior McKynna Oconitrillo said. “Sometimes I don't even realise it's my last season on the team. When I do, it hits me hard knowing I can't continue playing on this team after high school. I've made so many memories with all the girls on the team, even the freshmen. I continuously look back on these memories because of how fun it was being in those moments. With the season coming to an end, I hope to make more memories like those that I can remember after high school.”
While the team hasn’t yet competed in sectionals, some of the players are already looking forward to next season.
“I’m looking forward to continuing to grow with my remaining teammates,” Asher said. “However, most of our varsity team will be gone. I'm excited to see how our JV girls improve and step up to be varsity players.”
So, despite the season coming to an end shortly, there still may be much in store for the girls tennis team heading into sectionals and beyond.