The JV girls tennis team took home the first place plaque for All Conference on Saturday, October 12.

The girls JV tennis team finished out, their season with an overall victory taking first place in the NLCC tournament. Number 2 singles, Charlotte Shafer, took home a first place medal, along with number 3 singles, Asha Fry. Number 3 doubles played out the final match, unaware that if they won, it made Grayslake North High School the 1st place winners at the NLCC tournament. Cheryl Jenkins and Kavya Joshi won 3rd place giving North the points to win.

The girls on the JV team go on to say how other athletes have evolved. One athlete, Charlotte Shafer started as an exhibition player and moved up a lot this season and ended as a number two singles player, going 16-0 winning conference.

Coach Kopecky, the new JV Tennis coach thought that the girls did an amazing job this season evolving every day. 

”The season was like a roller coaster of ups and downs but mostly highs. I was pleasantly surprised by the talent and the wins and the overall awesome season,” said Coach Kopecky.

Next year Coach Kopecky hopes to return and help evolve with the sport. They are always accepting new players and hope to see new faces next Fall. She brought the JV team to a 6-1 victory in match play during the season.

Varsity finished out the season with a tie for first place in the Grayslake tournament, and took second one point away from the conference NLCC title. They then went third in Sectionals.

Coach Tomasello talked about how “awesome” this season was, saying how they, “Had incredible athletes with great personalities. (They were) very dedicated, hard working, and (they) were successful as well,” she said

All varsity players got the award for having a 3.5 or higher GPA all season.

This season was a series of triumphs, victories, and then minor little downfalls that we all got over, and work together as a team to overcome,” said Meg George a sophomore singles varsity player. 

This year the varsity team worked on strategies, like poaching, alley shots, and placement. Coach Tomasello hopes to increase the skill level in their tactics. They had two first place finishers and two second place finishers out of there seven flights. A varsity goal for next year is to get first in the NLCC tournament. 

This year, the JV and varsity team lost some senior players and are hoping that students will come out and tryout.

If students want to join the tennis team, they have some words of encouragement. They want to tell future tennis students that, ”You can’t doubt yourself. Throughout the entire process, if you doubt yourself, you’re not going to succeed. So you have to find people in the team, and if you’re a doubles partner, you have to find a partner that you know is going to lift you up because you need to be confident to have a good dynamic,” said Cheryl Jenkins, a JV tennis player. 

Student athlete Lainey Spiewak also says, ”Don’t be negative or else it will impact your whole life.”