After a very successful Regional Semifinal, for the girls’ and boys’ Varsity, both teams advanced to the Regional Semifinal on Tuesday, April 24th. The boys played La Salle from Miami at home and came out on top with the win. Unfortunately, the Varsity girls lost to their biggest rival, Gulliver Preparatory School, ending their season.

The girls, however, did not let the loss define their season. Type One talked with Mimi Lavin, a member of the varsity girls tennis team, about this season and their successes so far. “This years’ team definitely has more team spirit and works together more. I feel like this year everyone is just friends with each other … Everyone cheers each other on equally and we all try to be inclusive of everyone else.”  

The girls had a very successful season, doing well in all of their matches against great teams. Demi Snyder, a junior on the team who plays #1 singles for the girls, shared her goals at the beginning of the season. “My goals for the rest of the season are to maintain the bonds and friendships that we (the players) created with each other during the season.  I cannot wait for the end-of-season banquet and team sleepovers in the future that will give us time to spend with one another and become even closer.” The girls rallied through their losses, celebrated their triumphs, and enjoyed every second of it.

Over the past years, one of the team’s biggest rivals has been the Gulliver Preparatory team. Chris Kotite (’18), discussed how the teams have matched up in the past and his predictions for the season. “Since I’ve been on the team, our biggest rival has been Gulliver Prep. The past two years they’ve barely beaten us in regional finals, but this year we have a really strong lineup that has the potential to take them down.”

The boys’ team remained laser-focused throughout the entire season and kept their eyes trained on the States title. In the end, it all paid off, with their win against Gulliver in the Regional Finals on Thursday, April 26th, the boys’ team will move on to the State Championship on Wednesday, May 3.

Everyone understands how important it is and how hard they have worked for it.  “This is by far the strongest team we’ve had in years; In the starting lineup (top 5) we are all very close in skill level and have been competing both in and out of school for years, so a lot of us have known each other and have been playing against each other since we were about 10 years old,” Chris said.

We congratulate the girls’ team on an outstanding season and wish the boys the best of luck as they move on to States on Wednesday.