Girls Tennis Takes the Court

Freshman year Sadie Padillla joined the tennis team after her friend recommended her to join. Three years later she has fallen in love with the sport. Padilla remains ecstatic to continue her remaining year with the team.  Her biggest hopes for this year’s team are that they try their best and that they don’t give up so easily. Last season girls’ tennis tied for second in their league and carried on this new season with overall records of  6-6-2 as well as placing 2-3 in their league.

The girls’ put in the work to keep these stats, by preparing as best they can for these remaining matches. Padilla describes practices as, “ sometimes a little hot mess, but we’re always having fun and joking around. ” Conditioning for these girls’ although seems like quite a different story. Preparing for this season these girls trained and pushed themselves to the best of their abilities by doing lots of running, exercises, and basic training for proper technique of holding their rackets’.

One of the most fond memories Padilla recalls are, “ our trips to different schools and after playing we would go out and eat. ” She describes her teammates as a bunch of jokers with some of the best chemistry. One of these other teammates Padilla describes is another senior, Gabriela Rios.  Rios has been playing tennis for a year and although she was not on the same team as Padilla last year, she still has some great memories from her last season’s team. “Just getting to hang out with my teammates and like just going on tournaments and like just having fun overall it’s all we did we just messed around at practices and that’s’ it.” Rios hopes for this season are that this year’s team is able to make it to the championships and hopefully even further down the road. Rios also gives a description of her bond with the teams and states, “ I think we have really good chemistry, we’re all really good friends and we all like to spend time outside of school and hanging out during the tournaments and everything and I  think we have good chemistry.” 

Not only is it the girls that are excited for this season but coach Laura Rice as well.  Rice will be spending her 22nd year coaching girls’ tennis and has spent many years of her career playing tennis. Rice has had experience playing tennis since her high school years and continues sharing her knowledge of the game with her players. “ I look for players that are going to be committed, that want to work hard and have fun too, but I want them to work hard and try to what is needed or what I ask of them, so if they can follow directions well and things like that,” said Rice.