Scholar & Athlete

Girls' tennis team set to defend league title

Tuesday, September 04, 2012 By Haley Jensen

800x600 By Haley Jensen Staff Reporter This year’s girls’ tennis team has big ambitions. Coming off of three consecutive first place finishes in the San Joaquin Athletic Association (SJAA) league play, the team wants to keep up their tradition of winning. Last season the team tied with Lodi High School to win the league title as co-champions. They went 9-1 in league play. Practice began on the first day of school. Coach Paul Demsher had no mandatory summer training requirements, but he did encourage the girls to play in tournaments and to take lessons. “We would like to keep winning,” Demsher said. “But our number one goal is to get better at tennis and have fun doing it.” The team plays matches with six singles players and three doubles teams. The girls are arranged in a ladder system, with the top 12 players competing in most matches. “Girls can move up or down the ladder by a challenge match,” Demsher said. “The first six play singles and the next six form the doubles teams.” Seniors Cassidy Dolstra and Aubrey Boehm are sharing captain’s duties this year. Dolstra and Boehm each have more than five years of tennis experience. Both girls are playing singles for this season. Boehm normally plays doubles, so being a singles player is a new for her. “I’m kind of nervous because it’s a totally different game,” Boehm said. “This year I’m going to have to really push myself to play better.” Dolstra has been a member of the Tracy High team for three years and has been a part of all three of the league titles. “Our team has a really good bond,” Dolstra said. “I hope that we can keep the SJAA title. It’s like going undefeated.” Besides major returning players, there are some new additions to the team that Demsher finds promising. Among the new players is freshman Sarah Kellogg. Kellogg has four years of tennis experience behind her. She will be playing doubles on the team. “I’ve always wanted to play for a high school team,” Kellogg said. “The girls are so nice.” The upcoming home game takes place on Sept. 18 against Lincoln High. The matches begin at 3:30 p.m. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}