On Monday, February 24, the AHS girl’s tennis team showcased their talent for the first time of the season and this year the team is hoping that with a smaller group of girls they can advanced all the way to the 2014 State Championship.

Each year the girls tennis program has been growing, and this season a total of 35 girls came out for the JV and Varsity teams. For the first time ever coaches had to hold tryouts and fifteen girls were cut from the program.  Last year the team had eleven girls on Varsity and fifteen girls on JV; however, this season the coaches wanted to create a smaller team so practices could be held daily and individual skills would receive more time and attention.

Now that the team has been finalized, all the players feel confident about their talent this 2014 season.

Last year the team went to Districts, but IB testing was scheduled during the State Tournament and the seniors were not able to compete. This year there has been an adjustment in the tennis schedule so the IB testing will not conflict with the District Tournament.

“At the first practice this year, our head coach Scott told all of the returning varsity that there would not be any IB testing during district tournament,” senior and number one doubles player Jennifer Coombe said. “I’ve played tennis for three years and I know how hard it can be to compete at Districts without most of the seniors, so now I’m excited to see what our team can accomplish at the District Tournament because everyone should be there.”

The teams only lost three seniors and they still have their number one singles player Caroline Godfrey, number two singles player Haley Hopkinson, and number three singles player Caroline DeRosa, and the same number one doubles team from last year, Jennifer Coombe and Sadie Alpern.

Caroline Godfrey the number one singles player for the 2014 tennis season, has high hopes for his tennis season.

“Although it was hard to cut girls from the team, I think combining the varsity and JV teams to make a smaller team will help everyone to improve this season,” Godfrey said. “Even though tennis is an individual sport I think we will really come together as a team this year and be successful.”