The Junior Varsity girls tennis team lost their meet on Sept. 10, but was split into three teams due to the team size.

Normally, there would be one team  consisting of six girls but due to the size of the team, the decision was to turn the MHS J.V. tennis team into three teams. The three teams were centered around the school colors and were MHS Blue, MHS Red and MHS White. This allows more players to play at each meet, giving everyone an opportunity to play.

“We have a really large tennis team numbers-wise this year,” coach Brad Fabrizius said, “and so my goal is honestly trying to give everybody opportunities to play matches, give opportunities to make sure that they can improve everyday as a tennis player, and also just to have fun and build that team camaraderie that goes with any sport.”

The J.V. team doesn’t seem to be affected by the large team or the team split. They’re just looking forward to the rest of the season.

Freshman Emma Thurston said that she’s looking forward to “getting more experience” and “having fun” this season.

“Probably, I guess, this Saturday and the next meet,” freshman Sophia Evangelidis said, “I love the meets.”

Both Evangelidis and Thurston were confident in the way they played Tuesday. Thurston believed she and Evangelidis played “really good” at the meet. Freshman Lauren Wesely was not as confident in the way she played. Both she and her doubles partner, freshman Jessica Zhang, felt as though they played terribly. Wesely believes that Tuesday was “just an off day” for her.

“It appears that one girl is good, like they always are, ” Fabrizius said, “So those matchups have been close battles, but we haven’t gotten past them yet. So other than that, it’s been some really good competition for us.”

Thurston’s motivation to play isn’t someone she looks up to, her motivation is not wanting to quit.

“I used to quit in every other sport because I either thought I was no good at it or it just bored me,” Thurston said, “But no matter if I’m having a good day or a bad day, I’m not going to let that get me down, I’m just going to keep going.”

Evangelidis had advice for anyone wanting to play tennis.

“Just try it,” she said, “because it’s so much fun and you’ll never know if you don’t try it.” 

The J.V. girls tennis team’s next meet is Sept. 12 at Topeka High.