Park’s girl’s tennis faced a tough loss against the Southwest Lakers 0-7 on Sept. 25. With many hard-fought battles from both teams and several close sets, the Orioles ultimately could not secure the wins to clinch the overall victory.
Coach Greg Holmbeck said he wanted to emphasize the team’s approach to focusing on individual growth and personal achievement, rather than just the final score. He said throughout the season, the players have been encouraged to set specific goals for each match to help with the development process.
“Our game plan was for each of the girls to set a couple of personal goals for their match,” Hombeck said. “Afterwards, we talked about those goals and whether they met them. Most of the girls felt that they played better and achieved their goals for today’s match.”
Eighth-grader Gabbie Loberg said she’s been taking a moment to reflect on her performance. She said when facing a strong opponent, she tries to stay more concentrated on specific skills and how she executed them during the match.

“I knew we were up against a good team coming into today’s match,” Loberg said. “Instead of focusing on the final result, I tried to just do my best, and I have to remind myself constantly to just take it point by point. This was the best match I’ve played so far which feels good.”
Senior Kiran Alwy said despite entering the match with an injury, she was determined to compete at her best. She said that before every game there are important physical preparations to manage her injury, including seeing the Athletic trainer.
“I’ve been dealing with an injury, so I made sure to visit Josh (the athletic trainer for Park) for help beforehand,” Alwy said. “I had to prepare my body for the challenge today and make sure I was as healthy as I could be.”
Coach Holmbeck said everyone’s performances were excellent today and put up good battles.
“Everyone shined in their own ways today,” Holmbeck said. “They all did well for different reasons. Our third doubles team of Tess and Amy put up a really good fight. Overall, it was fun to watch our girls get better by competing with this high level of opponents.”
Alwy said that when facing a challenging opponent she has to make sure she’s mentally prepared. She said the mental part of the game is important and how it can affect her performance.
“We knew Southwest was a stronger team than us, I wanted to concentrate on my mental wellness for the match,” Alwy said. “A lot of it is about your mentality while you are playing so I had to make sure my head was in the game and ready to play tennis like I know how to.”
Loberg said as she sets new goals for herself, she hopes to improve on different types of skills to defeat the next opponent. Loberg said she saw improvement throughout the match.
“I’ve been working on returning down the line on serves. At first, that wasn’t going great for me, but by the end, I saw that I made improvements throughout the match,” Loberg said. “For the next match, It would be nice if I focused on hitting better ground strokes and not getting in my head.”
Park plays Benilde St. Margaret’s next at 4:15 p.m. Sept. 26. at Aquila Park.