A Hit and a Miss

The Maclay Varsity Girls Tennis Team Beats Chiles 5-2, While the Boys Team Falls Short 2-5

Photo by Hoi Pham on Unsplash

On Wednesday, Feb. 21, the Maclay varsity boys and girls tennis teams hosted the Chiles Timberwolves for a home match. Between being a classic rivalry and being early in the season, both teams came out swinging. The teams began with a round of doubles for both the girls and boys teams, then moved into singles. The boys team lost to the Timberwolves 2-5 overall, and the girls team beat them 5-2.

The boys team came out hot with number one seed senior Bradley Carnes and number five seed senior Will Patterson playing in a game of doubles. Both teams served aggressively, setting the tone throughout the duration of the game. The Marauders played competitively, but let the game slip away at the end. The final score for Carnes and Patterson versus the Timberwolves was 3-8.

“I felt like Brad and I performed well,” Patterson said. “I love the communication aspect and I definitely rely on communication heavily to stay focused.”

Although he fell short in doubles, Carnes rose to the occasion during his singles match and beat the Timberwolves 8-2.

“I double-faulted more than I wanted to at the start, so I opted for a more consistent serve to try and lose less points,” Carnes said. “My goal was to keep a good mentality throughout the match, so I made sure to bounce the ball and check my strings a lot between points to reset my mentality.”

Aside from the loss from the boys team, the girls team had better luck in this match. The girls team beat Chiles 5-2, securing the win for the Lady Marauders. Third-seed senior Anissa Lakshmin and fourth-seed senior Maria Boulos also won their doubles match 9-7.

“My performance yesterday was not its best,” Boulos said. “But, this taught me that I can’t let this one bad day affect my upcoming matches. I know that it was just an off day and that I'm ready for our match.”

As a whole, the teams took home a win and a loss. The Marauders will continue to train for their next match against Niceville on Friday, Feb. 23.