The winds causes the net to sway back and forth lightly. Freshman Rachel Lambert stands behind the baseline, racket in one hand, ball in the other. The uniform of her opponent reads “Dewitt”. She tosses the ball up, and brings her racket back. She brings her racket down on the ball and it goes flying across the court. The ball touches down just on the edge of the service line. A smile spreads across her face; the score is now “15-Love”.

“This is my first year on the team,” Lambert said. “I decided to play tennis in the early spring around the time of tryouts. I’m really glad I am a part of the team now, everyone is really friendly and I enjoy practicing every day after school with the team. We’ve mainly been focusing on just keeping the ball in play during practices, but we have been thrown in other things such as serving and lobbing.”

The JV tennis team played Dewitt and tied 4-4. In preparation, the team has been practicing since the end of March, and have been using the school’s courts everyday immediately after school.

“Even though we haven’t won all of our matches, it has still been a fun season,” freshman Noelle Nixon said. “We’ve been together for a couple of months now and it’s been a great time. Weather we are blaring music during practice or bonding on our trips to different schools, it’s just been a great time. Most of the girls on the team are first time players, so we don’t have the same level of skill as some schools. That just drives us to practice harder every day at practice.”

Sophomore Alyssa Golden played a singles match and won with a score of 8-6. Freshman Jamie Elrod also played a singles match and won 8-2. Doubles included the duos of sophomore Mckenzie Danielson and freshman Hanna Ferguson with a score of 8-4 and sophomores Cheyenne Feltz and Samantha Baxter also winning 8-4.

“Practicing every day has really helped my game to improve,” Elrod said. “I have played singles matches and doubles matches this season. I enjoy both of them, but playing singles is my favorite because you are completely dependant on yourself, and there is no one else to blame if a point is lost because of a mess up.”

Because of the amount of time spent together on and off the court, each individual girl has contributed to the formation of a full tennis team.

“I’m sad the season is ending,” freshman Megan Armbruster said. “It’s going to be strange
going straight home after school and not staying at the courts for practice. It’s been a great season because of how well everyone has played and practiced together.”

The girls final match of the season will take place on May 17 on the home courts in Fenton; matches will begin at 4:30.