Serving a community

Girls tennis looks forward to upcoming season

Rosie Towler towleros000@hsestudents.org

Last year, the Girls tennis team made it all the way to the state finals, the first time in school history for the team. This season, the girls tennis team roster has many familiar names from last year’s team, as well as some new ones with the team growing every season.

“My individual record was 24 and four maybe,” junior Caroline Ober said. “The team record, we lost once in the regular season, we lost to Carmel, which is who we lost to in the state finals.”

They played their first game on Tuesday, April 12 against Noblesville and many of the girls are looking back on last year's season and their relationships with the team throughout the season.

“My favorite memory was definitely last year because we made it to the state finals, which we had never done before in program history,” Ober said.

Tennis tends to be more of an individual sport, where the team plays different versions of the game like doubles and singles. However, the team focuses on building a community within the group, to help the lineup of many different personalities feel more together.

“I decided to join Fishers tennis because of the community and the people there,” senior Rahee Dharmadhikari said. “I also genuinely love playing the sport and I've been playing it since I was in the fifth grade. It's just been like a lifelong hobby.” of girls hoping to try out next year.

While Dharmadhikari is not a part of the team this year due to her losing her racket, she could not help but look back on how the team built the sense of community that she and the other players had.

“My favorite memory was when we all got ice cream after a long and hard tennis match against Carmel,” Dharmadhikari said.

“This year we're really trying to work on being more of a team,” Ober said. “It's easy for a sport like tennis, which is mainly an individual sport, It's hard to be connected as a team. So, this year we're really trying to focus on doing events and just trying to make sure everybody feels like they're a part of the team.”

This season the team has a new coach, Matthew Stahl, the JV coach for this year. He has high hopes the girl's tennis team can improve with their game and the team’s competitiveness with the building of friendships among the girls in the team.

“I [hope] the girls can compete, improve their game and enjoy the game,” Stahl said. “I do not have many memories yet but have really enjoyed the group of girls, they are great to coach.”

Although the team lost to Carmel in the state finals, the team hopes to come back more powerful than last year. For the team, one of the ways to come back more powerful than last year is to continue to build on the team’s community as well as work on their individual talents.

Although it is a new season for girl's tennis this spring, many of the girls are returning for another season. This year the team is hoping to work on building a bigger community in the team to carry on the number

“I just hope to improve my record from last year and just try to help the team make sure we can be just like last year even better than last year,” Ober said. “It'll be really exciting to see how far we can make it this year. We've got a really good team, JV