Photos and story by Will Boyce ’15 | Staff Writer

On Wednesday, May 7, 2014, the girls varsity tennis team defeated Novi High School 7-1 to extend their undefeated season to a record of 15-0 and 4-0 in the MAC.  South was ranked number one in the state in the preseason rankings, and haven’t skipped a beat since.

“We need to not be over confident going into states because everyone needs to perform,” said Brooke Willard ’14. “Our strength is our depth, we are strong at every flight.”

Referring to the one flight that loss on Wednesday, Head Coach Mark Sobieralski explained that it is good to get beaten every once in a while to learn from the match, but that it can really hurt you when it comes to states seeding.

One and two seeds at states don’t play  until the semifinals on the second day of states, where as three, four, five, and six seeds have to play a seed on the first day of states in the quarter finals, Sobieralski said.

“We are playing well but we need everybody playing well,” said Sobieralski. “It is tough when you start beating people, it is easy to have let downs when you take someone for granted, every time you go out on the court you got to be ready to play.”

The Friday before the match against Novi  High School, South defeated the number three team in the state, Bloomfield High School, 7-2. Including Raven Neally’s ’16 victory at number one singles against the defending state champion of number one singles, and Maddie Palouchi’s ’17 victory over the defending state champion at number four singles.

Sobieralski noted that the team needs to remained focus in the home stretch of the season, and not focus on the hype or the newspaper headlines about how good they are.

“They have to just concentrate because this time of the year is tough  with AP exams going on,  prom, NHS and a lot of activities that are a distraction,” said Sobieralski. “When your team is fighting for a state title it’s hard to stay focused.