The 2024 season has truly been a comeback for Panther tennis! With the history of not winning a single match for the past 24 matches, to now having won 4 matches, these girls have truly put in the hard work. Keeping this in mind, let’s have an in depth look at the progress the team has made and get insight from Coach Beaton, captains, and more!

Practice Makes Perfect

Coach Ruth Beaton takes notes during each match of things each player needs to work on and the following day, we attack our weaknesses at practice. This has helped the team immensely because repeatedly working on our weaknesses heps.

Beaton expresses that our main improvement from last season was that our practices have been more organized. We used to play games at practice and not take the sport as seriously as we have this season.

One main thing we have been focusing on this season as a team is returning serves deep and cross-court. This helps keep the ball away from the player on the net which is an important concept so that your partner does not get hit at. Another exercise that is helpful to do is returning drop shots so that you and your partner have to take the net and do volleys to put the ball away. 

Players on the team have also grown to understand that it is important to try new things at practice. While an intense game is not the time to try a new serve technique, practice definitely is.

A Pentucket junior tennis player, Katie Hella, agrees saying she has “seen so much improvement in everyone on the team from our hard work with our warm ups, drills, and agility.”

Pentucket sophomore and tennis player Kalleigh Metcalf adds,“Besides warmups, there is really no time to make mistakes, so practice is a good time to make mistakes and take the time to work on the areas you’re having trouble with.”

Another important part of playing on a tennis team is working in the off- season. Typically, if one is serious about a sport, they will put in work in the off-season to improve their game.

In a survey, almost everyone replied saying that they had done physical activity in the off-season to prepare for tennis. These included tennis lessons and going to the gym.

Shoutout!

This year’s captains, Zoe Davis and Leah Whitney along with seniors Alyssa Persecetti, Jill Gavin, and Jordyn Flaherty have been great leaders this year and the team will miss them dearly.

Sportsmanship

While the team’s performance has improved, one thing that was already top tier was our sportsmanship. Last year, the Panther’s girls tennis team won the CAL sportsmanship award. Our team aims to treat our opponents with kindness no matter how they treat us.

One thing that Beaton tells her players is that, “You win with grace and lose with grace.” This has proven to be true throughout the years. We learned that if you win you do not flaunt it, and if you lose you do not be a poor sport. This is an example of sportsmanship which should be applied to any sport.

Another big part of sportsmanship in tennis is playing fair. Since tennis is a sport where you and your opponent are the referees, it is essential that you are honest. This can be as simple as overriding calling a ball you already called out by saying, “Hey, I think that was actually in.” By being truthful, one must hope that their opponent does the same, but if not, never stoop to the level of lying.

Hella shares her thoughts on the team’s sportsmanship by explaining how, “We carry class and respect on and off the courts at matches and we play fair and are honest on our line calls.”

Lastly, one must know when to correctly clap. For example, if you hit a great shot in which your opponent can not get to in time, then your team may clap. However, if the other team hits it out or into the net (which is known as an unforced error), then the team should not clap because you won the point based on your opponent not returning the ball.

Mindset and Team Bonding

Ever since Beaton started coaching the tennis team, she has made it her priority to make sure her team has positive mindsets and make everyone feel a part of the team.

While other schools have separate buses for JV and Varsity, or do not let their JV team introduce themselves in the line up, we are united and travel as one. Our team travels as one and we make everyone feel equal. 

Having a good environment and feeling heard is an essential goal for our tennis team. An activity we do for team bonding is hosting pasta parties before our matches. This is a great way to catch up with teammates off the courts! Pictured below is our pasta party at Senior Captain Zoe Davis’s house!

Beaton has also bonded us through dealing with the mental struggles of tennis. For example, we do workouts at practices after matches to work on footwork and endurance. One time, coach separated us into four different groups and put us with different people we may not normally talk to and we did competitive drills. 

It is what we did after these drills that truly bonded us though. After the drills we did trust falls with people we sort of trust but someone you are not extremely close with. This helped toughen us mentally and this really channeled Beaton into her teacher roots. We got schooled.

The team has learned the mental aspect to tennis by truly taking each point one at a time and by going to our happy places when we do a second serve. Sometimes all you needs is to take a breath and think good thoughts and then get your serve over the net and in. 

Takeaways

Panther girl’s tennis is just getting started on their comeback streak and it starts with this team going to the MIAA Playoffs for the first time in the past 5 years! The team hopes to continue to progress immensely in the years to follow with practice, practice and more practice.