On Tuesday, Sept. 7, the Arcadia High Schools’ (AHS) Girls Tennis Varsity and JV teams competed against San Marino High School. Varsity and JV both won, despite the JV match taking place at San Marino. Freshman Leia Mar gave us an inside scoop on the tournament and her own experience on playing tennis.

Leia is on the JV Girls Tennis team, and she began playing tennis at the start of middle school. Her favorite things about tennis include “volleying”, which is when a player goes up to the net to hit the ball, and playing doubles because it allows her to communicate and support her teammate.

The match at San Marino was not an easy feat.

“The opposing team only had six people, which happened to be the starters. It was really tough because we had 19 players, and had to keep switching out to go against their starters. But nevertheless, we were really overjoyed that we won.” said Leia.

Though it’s her first year being on the tennis team at AHS, she saed that the more experienced girls have been extremely helpful to her.

“They always support everyone by cheering them on and making sure that we can ask them questions whenever we have any,” she stated. “They are also really nice so it’s easy to talk to them.”

This is a true demonstration of how strong the bond is between fellow Apaches. In addition to playing tennis, the girls share many fun and entertaining discussions outside of practice. Although COVID-19 requires everyone to wear a mask, that doesn’t stop their connections that they build during and after the season is over. At team bonding events, which also happens to be Leia’s favorite part of tennis, they always have a great time.

“One time we went to a Shabu Shabu place for lunch and it was really fun because we got to talk about stuff other than tennis, like school and Kpop! It was super beneficial because I got to know many things about the other girls that I’ve never known before.”

Finally, Leia shared that tennis has taught her not only to build coordination and be a good athlete, but also many life lessons.

“Tennis has taught me to always have confidence and to never give up because there’s always a chance that you can catch up if you’re losing.”

This lesson is applicable to all of us, not only tennis players, especially in these tough times. Arcadia High School will continue to cheer on our girls tennis team!

Photo courtesy of hansmarkutt on PIXABAY