Courtesy Mia Milicevic

Junior Christina Simpson hits a ball in her doubles match against Quince Orchard. She and her doubles partner, sophomore Sonia Gass, help WJ beat QO 7-0, contributing to the team’s current five-game win streak.

As the regular season has come to a close, the girls tennis team is looking really strong heading into the playoffs.They have won seven of their last eight games, handing the team a 10-2 record.

“It’s been a successful season, we lost a lot of seniors last year. So their success this year has really surprised me in a good way, and it’s great to see them come together as a team. There are times when they’ve stepped up and continued to perform and keep the wins coming,” head coach Mitch Duque said.

After receiving their first loss against Churchill, the team rebounded against the Richard Montgomery Rockets. The following week, the Cats won three games in three days against Wootton (April 15), Damascus (April 16) and Poolesville High Schools (April 17).

“Last few weeks have been really good, we’ve been playing really well as a team. And we’re supporting each other when we’re not playing, we’re all very close to each other and we all have fun with each other,” sophomore Emma Aivazov said.

On Wednesday, April 24 and Friday, April 26, the Cats beat Quince Orchard and Wheaton respectively with a score of 7-0 in both contests. The next day, they lost a tight match against Whitman 4-3, marking their second loss and second against a conference opponent. The team finished out the season on a high note, with a win against Northwest on Senior night.

“We’ve had a lot of success, we had to bounce back from that one Churchill loss, and the girls really took that one to heart. We were very close [against Churchill] but I think from here on out, we are completely focused on one goal which is to not lose,” Duque said.

Despite some tough opponents, the team has had lots of success this season. Through eleven regular season games, the Cats have a combined set score of 65-12.

“A couple matches like B-CC and Churchill have been challenging, but other than that the team has been doing really well. We’re working very hard,” freshman Ava Sharifai said.

Up next for the Wildcats is counties. Despite the upcoming challenge, the players know that they need to lock in in the upcoming games in order to continue playing their best.

“As a coach, what I’m trying to get them focused on is peaking at the right time. In every other year when we play in tournaments, we always perform better at the end than in the regular season. We’re going to have to play teams that we’ve already played against. And you have to be focused at every single point and perform your best at the end,” Duque said.

Counties begin on Friday, May 3 with seven different tournaments occurring simultaneously across the county for each position on the team, singles one through four and doubles one through three.