The Townsend Harris girls’ varsity tennis team made history after an undefeated regular season and a final four finish in playoffs. These records merely reflect the overall takeaways each player received from their victorious season.
Though small in size, the 11 girl team was not only able to meet their goals but exceed them. Senior Rachel Zhang recalled, “Last season, we were tied for first with Francis Lewis and this year, our initial goal was trying to match that.” The girls’ team now holds the Queens Borough division title, winning all 10 of their regular season matches. Likewise, the team had outstanding playoff games against High School of American Studies and Brooklyn Technical. Senior Hope Ha said, “We set our goals to do better than prior years as we’ve consistently gotten to the quarterfinals, but never further, and we did! This season went above and beyond any expectations I had.”
Having a smaller amount of athletes has proven to be beneficial to the team dynamic. Hope thinks that having a small team “impacts the season by making us more comfortable with each other and we have to be in communication with each other and get to know each other”. Rachel also believes, through a small team, everyone can focus on learning about one another and improve team chemistry. She stated, “The fact that our team is a lot smaller means that we became a lot closer, especially through all the successes we had this year. We were really motivated to try our best to win it because we wanted to do well not just for ourselves, but for each other.”
This season, the girls’ experience was marked with pride and sportsmanship. The team was able to win and achieve the goals set by coaches, peers, and themselves while paving the path to a historic and unforgettable run at THHS. Hope said, “I’m also proud that the other captains [and I] were able to lead the team and help the new freshmen get acclimated to a new environment.” Reflecting on her past seasons, Hope added, “These past two years have definitely been more organized and we’ve been more on top of our schedules and practices.” Rachel spoke on behalf of the seniors saying, “We all had the realization that this is our last year together, and I really think we made the most of it.”
Photo by Joshua Vieira.
