Last year’s tennis season ended on a high note, with both the girls and boys teams placing fourth at State. Head coach Ted Fabiano said he sees the team doing very well again this season, and is confident in their ability to compete with some of the better schools. He said he is excited to see the team step up to higher levels this season.

“I am looking forward to the girls stepping up to a higher level than they had been before and playing stronger competition,” Fabiano said.

Fabiano said 2013 graduates Maddie Miller and Jennifer Lowe leaving definitely changed the team for this season, since they had both been on varsity all four years. He believes that returning players of the State team, like Emily Roberts and Lindsay Haight, will help this season’s team succeed.

Girls varsity co-captain senior Riley Obetz, who competes mostly in doubles matches, said she and her partner went pretty far in all their tournaments last year, and she sees herself doing just as well again this season.

“I’d really like to end my last season with a very strong finish and do as well as I can in every match and tournament that I go to,” Obetz said.

Obetz noted that the team’s biggest strength is how close all the girls are, and that they are all good friends that get along really well together.

“[It is] such a close group of girls, and it really helps to have everybody on the side cheering for you,” Obetz said.

According to Obetz, the varsity team this year does not have any new players, and as of now, they are undefeated. She said the varsity is pretty solid this year, and expects them to do very well.

“We don’t have a weak link in [the varsity team] at all; it’s pretty solid all the way through,” Obetz said.

In preparation for the upcoming tournaments this season, sophomore Suruchi Ramanujan said the girls need to work on improving their singles playing, as well as touching up their overall strategy and technique.

Fabiano also wants to see the girls work on bouncing back from off-days this season, saying that one of the team’s biggest weaknesses is dealing with the pressure and not getting caught up after an “off-day.”

“I think all teams work toward this idea of handling pressure and rebounding past mistakes. Whoever does that best usually comes out on top,” Fabiano said.

With a strong team of players that are close friends on and off the court, Fabiano believes this season will go well, and looks forward to seeing how his team is able to step up to a higher level and face harder competition at tournaments this season.

“That’s pretty exciting, to have girls in more difficult situations and see how they handle it,” Fabiano said.