IHS Girls Tennis wrapped up their first season as a varsity team with notable wins and experiences. Before this year, the girls tennis team was considered a club team. This year, the girls tennis team is officially a varsity sport at IHS and sanctioned by the OHSAA.
They continued their successful season after the CVC Conference tournament, where every player placed top three, and went onto sectionals. Their run came to an end despite a strong effort, finishing their season with a 0-5 loss.
This year’s team included both new and familiar faces. Returning to the team were junior captains Carmen Chen and Alyssa Carriero, along with Noelle Kitagawa, Lauren Dailey, and Addison Walchanowicz, and sophomores Adriana Randjelovic and Addie Savage. Joining them were new freshmen and sophomores doubling the size of last year’s team. New players included junior Emma Iacianci, sophomores Maya Toth and Julian Frazier, and freshmen Adyson Miedl, Ella Kitagawa, Sehaj Rai, Ally Wodarczyk, and Toni Wodarczyk.
Toth and Randjelovic, the second doubles team, had a strong start to the season. Winning most of their matches, they went into the conference tournament and earned their second-place position. “Adriana and I both felt so blessed to win second place. Although we went into it confident, in the end, it showed that we were capable of much more than we thought we were,” Toth said. “I think as one, the team did amazing. We had great communication all throughout the season, even when a really rough patch hit us and we weren’t sure what would happen next,” she added.
After losing their head coach, Athletic Director Danny Zillich stepped in as an interim head coach for the team “While unexpected, it was nice to join the team and finish out the season,” Zillich said. “All of the players made it easy to step in helping me out with their knowledge of the sport for practices and games,” he added.
Becoming their coach mid-season without tennis coaching experience was tricky, but Zillich was thankful for the girls for showing him the sport.
“The season was solid as the team fought for the chance to win our CVC division,” Zillich said. “Juniors Carmen Chen and Alyssa Carriero led the team with sophomores Maya Toth and Adriana Randjelovic who grew into their doubles role,” he added.
Mid-season, Chen, the first singles team, suffered an injury and missed matches causing a change to the line-up. Carriero joined the first singles team after Chen’s injury. “It was a lot of pressure filling Carmen’s shoes, but I think I improved a lot with this experience,” Carriero shared. She competed in the conference tournament, placing third. “It felt good to get placed third, especially as the first singles team where I’m playing girls who are supposed to be better than me,” she said, “I knew I really wanted to win the top three so I played as hard as I could.”
The girls tennis team has grown so much since its first year at IHS. These girls have and will continue to put in a lot of hard work during the off-season, improving for next year!
