Senior captain Ethan Kowalski runs to return his opponent’s shot. Photo courtesy of Lifetouch Studios

Boys’ tennis finished strong by capping off their stellar season with great victories throughout the postseason. Senior Ethan Kowalski has won the the Mixed Doubles Championship for the past two years, and this year was no exception.

Each year he has won with a different partner and this season, girls’ tennis sophomore Lea Kosanovic enjoyed the ride with him. They had the number one seed going into the state tournament, so they used that momentum to propel them to numerous victories.

Each player faced different opponents in the tournament and to help the team prepare for their matches, head coach Mitchell Duque reviewed each player’s opponent. This helps players develop specific strategies to focus on and employ on match days.

“Tennis is usually about attacking an opponent’s weak spots and emphasizing your own strengths so the more you know of your opponent, the better prepared you’ll be,” Duque said.

Additionally, WJ players had a great achievement during the regional tournament as well. In mixed doubles, freshman captain Alejandro Colmenares and  junior Stacy Ternovskaia beat the #2 seeded team from Richard Montgomery in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

Then, they went on to lose in the semifinals to #3 seeded Wootton in a 3 hour, 3 set match that was very close. WJ ended up losing 15-13 in the 3rd set tiebreaker.

Colmenares performed well in Mixed Doubles, but he definitely had to adjust his game from singles to doubles matches. He had to sure he and his partner had great communication and knew their respective roles and positions on the court.

“In doubles the player needs to know that he/she has a partner in which he can rely on,” Colmenares.

There were several freshmen on the team this year, and while the new players on the team have been successful this season, they struggled with lack of experience in the playoffs. Freshman Gabe Kritz has noticed that some of the younger players face opponents who have already dealt with playoff pressure already.

“We worked to overcome this by focused and not letting the pressure get to us,” Kritz said.

Each player will continue to grow and develop next season and work to improve on their weaker areas. However, Duque also wants the team to focus on their strengths and capitalize on them next season.

“The work ethic and competitiveness of our younger players is inspiring and they truly feed off each other so that the whole team will thrive next year when we return to Division I,” Duque said.