As the girls’ tennis team started to gear up for sections, the captains organized a fundraiser to raise money to help the team, both with equipment and community building, according to senior captain Raquel Schlichting. 

“The goal was to raise money for our team to pay for our banquet, new balls and team bonding activities as well,” Schlichting said. “It was $10 per person or $20 per team and we ended up raising $1,500.”

Junior captain Kamryn Halley said she was elated with the results of the fundraiser, and that it served as an exciting way to involve the team and community. 

“It’s a fun way to get the team to come out and bond,” Halley said. “That was part of the reason behind it. We knew we had to do something to raise a lot of money.”

Schlichting believes this event was needed for fundraising and is thankful for the turnout. 

“We definitely needed to have a lot of funding, we wouldn’t have been able to have a banquet this year without this,” Schlichting said. “I am really glad that we had a lot of people come out and support us.” 

Junior Charlie Poulter said the competitive aspect of the fundraiser drew him to participate.

“I liked it a lot. I would have seriously done it even if it wasn’t a fundraiser,” Poulter said. 

According to Halley, she particularly enjoyed seeing other athletes come and support their fellow Orioles. 

“We had some soccer people, volleyball people and football people,” Halley said. “Watching them try to play together and figure it out was really entertaining.”

Poulter said despite losing his match, he still was happy to participate to assist the team in raising funds. 

“Even after you lost, it wasn’t really a loss because you were still helping a good cause,” Poulter said. 

The next matches are a part of the section tournament at Hopkins High School 4 p.m. Oct. 5, facing different sectional opponents.