On Thursday Oct. 30, girls’ varsity tennis took the championship MCAL title, beating Branson with a score of 6-3 after dominating their way through the MCAL lineup this season.
Juniors Lauren Wolfe, Geneva Gist, Abby Mullins, and sophomore Lindsay Thornton each won their singles matches, as well as the doubles team of senior Kaiko Kamei and sophomore Erica Pohl.
On Tuesday, Oct. 21, both the Tamalpais and Redwood varsity girls’ tennis teams lined up on the court, listening to each of the teams’ captains as they announced the matches for the day. Seniors Bailey Ferguson and Kamei started off the ladder with Redwood’s first-ranked singles player, Wolfe.
The team was in particularly competitive spirits due to their win against Branson on Oct. 14, making Tam the only other qualifying team for first place in the league. The Giants then beat the Red-Tailed Hawks 6-3 on Oct. 21, securing their first place title going into MCALs.
“Our rivalry with Tam goes way back, and they’ve beaten us the last few years in a row, so it was really exciting for us to beat them a second time this year,” Ferguson said.
Redwood also played a match against Novato on Oct. 24, winning 6-3 despite the absence of four of the Giants’ top players. Junior Abby Mullins and freshman Christine Watridge played particularly well, both making strong comebacks later in the match.
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, Redwood played their first MCAL match against Justin Siena, coming out with a sweeping score of 9-0.
“In the girl’s tennis league, our two toughest competitors are usually Tam and Branson, and I think that has definitely been true this year. Those are always our really close matches.” Ferguson said.
This year’s freshman have greatly contributed to the success of the team, according to both Kamei and Ferguson.
“I think we have some really good freshmen this year. Number three and number four on the ladder are [freshmen] Devon Cusack and Jacqueline Massey-Blake. They are both really good players and have definitely helped our team a lot.” Ferguson said.
Extensive practicing during both the season and the off-season has also helped the players improve, leaving the team with a high level of consistency.
“We have a few players that have worked really hard in the off season to get a lot better, Ferguson said regarding specific teammates, “I’d say [junior] Geneva Gist, [sophomore] Natalie Epstein, and the same for [sophomore] Chloe Wilson and [junior] Nina Becam [have] become really strong contributors between last year and this year.”
These solid improvements have clearly made an impact on the team’s collective ability and have attributed to their success.
“Even the bottom people on the ladder are really good competitors and they can face people with higher positions on ladders of other teams,” Ferguson said. “We have really solid players all the way down our ladder, there’s not a drop off after the top ten or top 12 [players].”
