Girls tennis faced off against Richfeild Sept. 23 and after battling hard came out with the win. The team’s season is coming to an end, and this was one of the final matches before sections begins.
Head coach Kevin Jones said the team’s performance was admirable considering a busy weekend with the distractions of Park’s homecoming game and dance.
“We had a long weekend, with all sorts of homecoming stuff, distractions, coming to school on a Monday morning and then having this match,” Jones said. “The team fought really hard and that paid off with them coming out with the win.”
According to senior captain Sarah Tirado, the team has focused on bonding this season. She said team bonding has helped players mentally during matches and it was demonstrated during today’s match.
“The highlight of the season has definitely been getting closer to my teammates. This year we’ve all been close and have had a really good bond and I like that,” Tirado said. “You can feel it during matches, everyone supports each other and is very encouraging.”

Despite the win, senior captain Ale Coronado said her mental mindset throughout the match was challenging.
“Overall my match went well, but during the match I felt very frustrated with my playing and I felt like it was not going well but it ended up being some of the best playing I’ve played this season,” Coronado said.
Tirado said working to keep one’s head up is important during matches because it is easy to be self-critical.
“During matches it’s important to try to not get down on yourself,” Tirado said. “It’s really easy to get stressed out if you lose points but just keep your head up and play as best as you can no matter what.”
Coronado said going forward and into sections, being more positive personally will be beneficial to herself as well as the rest of the team.
“A goal for me going forward and into sections is to have a better attitude for myself while playing and to just be more positive for the rest of the team,” Coronado said. “Going into sections that’s something important to think about especially when a match doesn’t go the way you want it to.”
Jones said all individuals on the team have contributed to the success that they’ve had. He said the team’s collective effort has resulted in noticeable strides from the stats this season versus lasts’.
“Compared to last year we’ve won matches, sets, tiebreakers and we’ve been a competitive team throughout the entire season,” Jones said. “We haven’t fallen off the cliff at all which is something that can happen during the season but this team has been having a steady climb, a small dip but overall just very consistent and they’ve all contributed to this.”
Park takes on Minneapolis Southwest at 4 p.m. Sept. 25, at Park’s tennis courts.