By Will Boyce ’15 | Staff Writer

On Saturday, the girls varsity tennis team opened up their season with a first place finish at the Allen Park Invitational at the Grosse Ile Tennis Center. They defeated Clarkston, Grosse Ile, and Allen Park.

The team entered their first tournament coming off of a third place finish at the state championship last year, and as the preseason number one ranked team in the state.

“I wanted the kids to improve,” said Head Coach Mark Sobieralski. “After every match the kids got better, by third match they were all playing really well.”

Raven Neely ’16, at number one singles, finished first on Saturday, the only singles player to win their fleet. The number two doubles of Sydney Keller ’14 and Morgane Flournoye ’15, the number three doubles team of Angelica Kalogeridis and Jenny Moy, both ’15 and the number four doubles team of Ginny Hayden and Kelly Beardslee, both ’15, all also finished first place in their flights.

All of the other singles and doubles teams had two wins and one loss.

Brooke Willard ‘14 said she wasn’t surprised that the team chemistry was so good this early in the season because they all know each other outside of school, so bonding came easy.

Sobieralski said the goal is to win the MAC Red Division, in addition to that, the regional and hopefully state title. Sobieralski said they’ve got a good enough team to win the state title, but he doesn’t like to talk about it and put pressure on the players.

“We need to take it one step at a time,” said Sobieralski.

Sobieralski went on to explain that the fact that they had such a young team last year, and were able to have such success, gives him confidence.

The team doesn’t play until Saturday, at the Brighton Invitational, and the main focus at practice this week will be shot selection, trying to get the shot you need, not the shot you want, Sobieralski said.

“Practice is very important, especially in the beginning of the season,” said Maggie Sweeney ’15. “It’s been difficult to practice since there’s snow on the outdoor courts and a limited number of indoor courts.”

“We are playing well now, but I’d rather us be playing our best in late May, than now,” said Sobieralski. “I’m looking for improvement.”

Sobieralski noted that he was impressed at how well the newly paired doubles teams were able to play.

“It’s very important for doubles teams to communicate,” said Sweeney. “It’s great to see so many so many of the doubles teams already communicating well this early in the season.”

Photos by Will Boyce ’15