Sports
Swampscott Girls Tennis Stepping Up The Competition
After an undefeated regular season last year, the Swampscott girls tennis team is moving up in the NEC.
girls tennis appears poised to be challenged by their own success this year.
Entering this season, the team will be moving up in the NEC to play against larger schools like Peabody, Beverly, Danvers and Gloucester because of Big Blue's dominance at the lower level the last three years.
The team also looks to replace its top singles players, lost to graduation last year.
Find out what's happening in Swampscottwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
However, if anyone is expecting a letdown, it is not coach Nina Rogers, who along with coach Lenny Polacco has been with the team during its successful run.
"We actually have a very solid group of players who will be competing for those two singles spots this year and we're returning a lot of good players to fill out the roster," said Rogers.
Find out what's happening in Swampscottwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Captains for the 2011 season are Kelsey O'Brian, Francesca Pelletier and Shannon Toner. However, those are not the only returning players on the team.
Seniors Becky Giller, and Meghann Toomajian are joined by juniors Alicia Coyle, Alana Dolan, Tatum Pederson, Ashley Petras, Rita Tsokanis, Danica Villanueva, and Michelle Migdalovich and sophomore Allegra Walker as veterans of the team.
"Rita (Tsokanis) was on our first doubles team last year and she'll probably be in the competition for one of the singles spots and Tatum Pederson is our only returning singles player, she'll be competing as well," said Rogers. "But a lot of our girls have been playing year round, so it will be interesting to see them all play and see their development as players."
Another challenge will be the new schedule.
With 10 games against NEC large schools and only two games against previously regular opponents Lynn Classical and Revere, Rogers has had to schedule other games against Lynnfield, Masco and Bishop Fenwick to round out the schedule.
The team's first match will be April 11 at home against Peabody.
"Another change is that we're going to be playing all of our matches on Mondays and Wednesdays this year," added Rogers.
"At this point, there are no clear number one and number two players, we'll be having a round robin at practice and we'll see where things go from there," said Rogers. "We haven't had a chance to see everyone play yet."
