photo by Peter Warren

   Varsity girls tennis is hoping to get some aces this season with an older and stronger team.

   “Last year, we were very young,” head Coach Gary Wasserman said. “Hopefully being in a very tough conference, Watchung Conference, we will do .500.”

   The girls tennis team has been putting in hard work during practices on the newly-paved LaGrande Ave courts this summer in order to further improve their match play. After graduating three senior starters last year, Wasserman is now reconstructing the team.

    “It is now a matter of being able to restructure the missing components we had from last year,” Wasserman said. “Last year we were solid and hopefully this year the girls will work hard and take it to the next level.”

   In order to improve from their 6-10 record last season, Wasserman anticipates that  several players will help the team. Junior Gauri Deshpande will be one of those players.

   Deshpande’s aims to “keep our seed in the counties and win more matches than last year.”

   Second singles player and co-captain senior Sophia DiIorio has also created goals for the upcoming season, for herself and for her team.

   “I have had the position as second singles for four years, so I want to perform better than I have in the past few years,” DiIorio said. “We have seven seniors, so our team is looking pretty strong.”

   Wasserman also expects big results from his first doubles team of co-captain and senior Sophia TumSuden and senior Maggie Richard and third singles player, senior Alexandra Shapiro.

   As the team plays in the Watchung Conference every year, many of the players are looking forward to matches against rival teams from the previous season.

   “I think it is going to be a lot of fun because we are rivals with Westfield,” DiIorio said.

   “We are probably in the lower part of the Watchung Conference, but if we go out and compete every match, it does not matter whether we win or lose,” Wasserman said.

   The girls seem pumped for a season of only hard work and fun.

   “I have never [coached] my teams based on wins or losses,” Wasserman said, “As long as they compete at a high level, it does not make a difference in the world.”