After they received the title of State Champions last year, the Girls’ Varsity A Tennis team continued their three-year winning streak. “I’m a senior and the whole time I’ve been on the team we’ve never lost a match,” stated Natalie Hu ‘23, one of the captains. In addition, last year, the team was the first-ever girls’ tennis team in Scarsdale history to become NYSPHSAA state champions. “We didn’t know what to expect at all… it was crazy because we didn’t expect to go that far,” Hu added.

This year, they have made it to States once again. In the regular season, which was from the end of August to the beginning of October, Scarsdale played schools in their league. This included Horace Greeley High School, Mamaroneck High School, Ursuline High School, and more. The top two teams from each league went to the postseason tournament a couple of weekends ago, where Scarsdale beat all schools in the other leagues. Next, the team won subregionals at SUNY Binghamton on October 20. In this match, they played against Ithaca and won 7-0. Afterward, the team played at regionals on October 23 in Goshen, NY, where they won 4-0. Now that they have won regionals, they will compete against the three other high schools in New York State that are first place in their respective region on November 4.

“We’re the fourth team in Scarsdale history to win states, so obviously it is intense trying to keep up our record. However, I think a lot of our success isn’t just from us all being really good players, but also that we are all really close. We prioritize that on the team,” Hu noted when asked about how she has continuously helped her team stay in the lead. Hu claims that they have a special bond and even the new freshmen each year fit in. “We try to make our matches fun. There’s a lot of pressure because we won last year and everyone wants to beat us, but we really try to take the pressure off.” Bonds are formed during frozen yogurt runs, movie nights, trips to the Kensico Dam at sunrise, and team dinners at Scarsdale restaurants.

The team lineup has three singles players and eight doubles players. At tryouts, doubles spots on the lineup are chosen with a tournament “Each of the doubles players is paired up with someone they want or the coach believes will be a good pair,” said Hu. Each match counts for one point, and since there are seven matches, the first team to win four wins. Sometimes they finish all of the matches, even if they have already won four matches. On days without matches, the team sometimes participates in challenge matches where they play against other doubles teams or singles players.

In addition to Hu, captains Campbell Alin ’23, Maya Cukierman ’23, and Coach Roane hope to guide their team to states for the second year in a row. Alin, Cukierman, and Hu all work closely and make sure they have the same plans for team bonding, but also make time to practice for their matches. “We’re pretty unified,” Hu stated.

On November 4, the Scarsdale Girls Varsity Tennis Team will be playing state championships against Bethlehem and the winner of Clarence and Port Washington. Maroon and the rest of Scarsdale wish them the best of luck!