Facing various schools for the past few weeks, the Coral Gables High School tennis team finds themselves playing another week of dedicated tennis. On March 5 and 7, the Gables team played against Felix Varela Senior High School and South Dade Senior High respectively. The team played their first away match against Varela, then played at the Biltmore Tennis Center against South Dade.
In their first match of the week, both the boys and girls team left the school at 12:30 p.m., talking about the upcoming matches and their chance of success against their opponents’ style of play.
Before they arrived, at 1:00 p.m., the players gathered their practice balls and warmed up while the Vipers hit the courts. Simultaneously, the Cavaliers prepared themselves for the games and assessed the players they would be opposing.
“These past matches were fun, being able to play. I feel like we’ve grown a lot closer compared to the beginning and I really like it and I think if we push each more we can go far,” junior Sophia Pfirrmann said.
In this match, the Cavaliers would face multiple challenges. For example, they played on courts they were not accustomed. In addition, the team lacked key players such as the girl’s number 2 player, sophomore Paula Mejia Guerrero, and the boy’s number 1 player, senior Henry Stoller.
Despite these challenges, the players pushed forward and played doubles matches to begin their competition. For the girls matches, the number one doubles team won 6 to 0 and the second team won 6 to 1. For the boys, the number one team won 6 to 4, and the other number one team won 6 to 2.
As the doubles matches wrapped up, the teams started to play their singles matches. The Lady Cavaliers won all their matches with 5 wins and 0 losses. The boys emerged victorious with the same score. After the overwhelming victory against Varela, the team rested the following day and prepared to face their new opponent, South Dade.
“Our team is really young this year considering the top four girls are all freshmen and sophomores. It’s great because our whole team will get to develop and bond together for the next few years as a group,” freshman Olivia Simon said.
On March 7, the team departed at 1:00 p.m. and gathered all their rackets and bags that were needed to play. Arriving at the Biltmore, Gables started warming up and hitting each other practice balls.
However, warmups were halted when it started to rain. The showers persisted for a short while until the weather cleared up later on.
After the interruption, coaches and players dried off the courts together. Finally, Gables and South Dade started their matches at 2:30 p.m., deciding to commence with the doubles matches for both the boys and girls.
As for the Lady Cavaliers, they lost their first doubles match 6 to 2 but the second doubles team won their match with a score of 6 to 0. The boys also did an exceptional job as they won with scores of 6 to 1 and 6 to 0.
“The matches last week were pretty easy against Varela and South Dade. For me, I’m finally a starter for the team because last year I wasn’t as good and then I spent the summer working to make the team and I finally made it. The upcoming match against Palmetto is going to be really tough since they’ve won state championship before but it’s always a good experience to play against them,” sophomore Andres Espinosa said.
Following the doubles matches, the coaches sent their top five players to play against each other for their respective singles matches. Midway through, the pressure was on the Lady Cavaliers to pull away because they were tied at the moment and needed to secure three more wins to beat South Dade. However, the number one, two and five of the girls team all lost their matches against tough opponents but the third and fourth girl won their matches 6 to 0 and 6 to 0.
Focused, the boys fought for a solid victory as every single match ended in a win and a score of 6 to 0. The Cavalier boys cruised to victory. On the other hand, the Lady Cavaliers came up short, winning three matches but forfeiting four matches to a tough South Dade team.
“Playing these matches, we realized that our boys are solid because we didn’t even use our one and two players against Varela or South Dade. We also realized that even as good as our one and two girls are there are some really strong players at other schools,” Coach Benjamin Groff said.
The Gables tennis team has been working their way through their season and they are looking toward a match on Tuesday, March 12 against a powerhouse in Palmetto High School. The team will be preparing for the match, especially as they find themselves closer to the district tournament.
