At the girl’s varsity tennis match last Thursday, the lady caimans faced off against San Diego Jewish Academy, but ultimately lost the match 14-4. With a 2-6-1 record, the season is going a little rough, but the team finds their ways to stick together through the wins and the losses.

“After each game, we support each other,” sophomore Kenna Chase said. “The coach will let us in the tea party, and then we will talk about what we did wrong, and what  we could communicate more about, and what we could improve on.”

The losses are made a lot easier with help from the coaches, Coach Mercedes and Coach T.

“Coach M and Coach T, no matter if we win or lose, they love us, which makes us love everyone around us, and so there really isn’t losing. Because we know that we improved that day,” sophomore Taylor Smith said.

Chase was quite happy with how the match went, based on the skill level of the team they played.

“I think it went really well for the team we were playing against. Like Coach was saying earlier, it’s a really good team,” Chase said.

Sophomore Jerri Lopez was also appreciative of the sportsmanship of the Jewish Academy team. “They were really nice, and a really respectable team. So  losing didn’t really feel like losing,” Lopez said.

Lopez has high hopes for the future. “I know we’ll be a lot more improved, definitely because right now we’re still developing… By our senior year, we’ll probably be really good,” Lopez said.

They also all have different ways they each want to improve. Freshman Lauren Chiang hopes to improve her mental game. “I always think pessimistically, so I want to be able to think like, I can do this. I can win this,” Chiang said.

According to Smith, the team is very close with each other, and they’re all great friends. “We all love each other, and whenever we see them, [we] just know it’s going to be a good day,” Smith said

With both singles and doubles games, tennis is both an individual and a team sport.

“It’s a team sport, because in the singles, we still need to cheer [them] on,” Chiang said.

Tennis has its struggles, though. It’s assumed to be easy-going, but it’s actually very demanding. Freshman Grace Alexander finds this to be true for her. “People portray tennis as this really lighthearted sport, but it’s really aggressive,” Alexander said, “and people don’t really see that.”

But through those struggles, tennis can be redeeming for the players. “When you hit the ball over the net, and it goes in, and they don’t hit it back, it’s just the best feeling ever,” Smith said.

“When you work hard, and you work hard at practice, and you’re working hard during those games, and you hit that perfect shot, it’s fun.” Chase said. Despite the loss, things are looking up for them.