Sisters Tara Phan ’24 (left) Mira Phan ’27 (right) play third doubles.
Wednesday 4/3 – Andover: 4, Groton Academy: 5
On Wednesday, Girls Tennis (0-1) suffered a close loss to Groton Academy, where the final result came down to a thrilling match between Co-Captain Tara Phan ’24 and her opponent.
Lara Madan ’27 discussed the physical and mental aspects that are important for success in matches. In Wednesday’s matches, the mentality allowed for some to succeed when faced with challenging circumstances.
“Something we’ve been working on leading up to this match is moving into the net and playing more of an aggressive game at the net and as well as keeping mental game and composure, so out on the court at Groton we kept our mental composure throughout the matches… We were, in some of our matches, especially singles, down a set and we came back up in some of the matches, eventually coming back to win the match,” said Madan.
Claire Cheng ’25 talked about the adjustments and challenges the team faced due to unfamiliar playing conditions. For its first match of the season, the team had to adapt to conditions it wasn’t used to.
“The atmosphere was pretty stressful because we were playing on Groton’s courts, and [they’re] basically on their hockey rink, so it was just a surface we weren’t used to. Apparently, out of the past 14 days [Groton] has been training, they had spent 12 out of those 14 days playing on those courts, so we weren’t really used to the speed… The ball moves a lot faster on their courts and their wall is a little bit close to the back of the court so you had to take the ball early,” said Cheng.
Despite the loss, Cheng admired Co-Captain Phan 24’s gameplay in a high intensity win-or-lose match. Even though the result wasn’t the desired one, the team felt a sense of unity after and are only looking towards being better in the future.
Cheng said, “By the time Tara was playing, it was four-all, and everyone was watching her play, the Groton girls on the court cheering for Tara’s opponent, and we were up above cheering on Tara. She played super well for the pressure, and I think that, even though she lost, it was really nice to have a team hug and be okay with our loss at the end because even though it was annoying it was that we have our faults and we will lose but it’s ok because by the time NEPSACs come around we will bounce back better than ever.”
