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Last week, the NS girls tennis team took second at region, with multiple girls taking first.
Shea Rawlinson took first place in the first singles position, Genivive Thompson took second in the second singles position, Madi Johansen took first in the third singles position, Alivia Madsen and Sadie Job took third in the first doubles position, Reagan Anderson and Brinley Bailey took fourth in the second doubles position, and Alana Bradley and Hallie Probst took third place in the third doubles position.
“I’m proud of all the girls,” Braithwaite said. “They’ve sure done a great job this season and it’s always a privilege to watch them compete at the end of the season.”
For Rawlinson and Johansen, their individual region championships mark four straight years of taking first in region. They took first in third doubles as freshmen and sophomores, then took first last year as first doubles.
“The things that we used in the past years we were able to carry on to this year which makes us both four-time region champions,” Rawlinson said.
Because tennis is a sport in which athletes play singles or doubles, it creates a sense of accomplishment because each match won is with a single person or two, but everybody is supporting each other.
“It feels individualized,” Rawlinson said. “I like the fact that it’s a team sport because we get to help each other out to pull out a team win.”
Johansen is also playing soccer and cross country at the same time as tennis, so the region win was made all the more memorable because of her hard work to balance the three.
For a variety of reasons, many of the girls on the team value their teammates and the team aspect of the sport.
“The girls are really good examples,” Madsen said. “It’s just a good environment, and Señor [Braithwaite] is a really good coach so I love being around all the people at tennis.”
The girls tennis team has a really close connection and has enjoyed bonding this year. For many of the girls on the team, it is their senior year and last season at NS, it has taken unity to stay positive throughout the trials.
“There have been so many times where I’ve just had a rough practice or a rough game,” Rawlinson said, “and they’ve just been there and crack jokes and take the pressure off playing well and make the struggles of playing tennis a little lighter.”
The first singles position in tennis can be especially challenging for a variety of reasons.
Rawlinson said. “[Playing first singles] possesses its own challenges because a team might not be as dominant, but usually there is one player that is especially talented. I’ve had to face a lot of good competition, so that’s been hard, but looking back on it, it made me better mentally and physically overall.”
This year tennis had a big change compared to previous years. Instead of the usual two matches per school in our region, they changed to only having one.
“It’s allowed us more chances to play tournaments outside in other locations that normally we wouldn’t be able to do,” Braithwaite said.
