Watching from the sidelines, senior Ava Jacobson said she felt helpless as she watched girls’ tennis get trampled by Benilde. According to Jacobson, despite their best efforts, the girls were no match for the number one team in the conference.

“(The girls) were playing so hard, and it’s not paying off,” Jacobson said. “I know that’s really disappointing because you’re like, ‘I’m giving it all I have,’ and it’s just not enough and that’s really hard.”

Jacobson, who was sidelined with an ankle injury, could only watch as Park was swept 0-7 in its match against Benilde Sept. 21. According to head coach Andres Gamero, the team grinded throughout the whole match. 

“It was a tough match. Benilde is a tough team but they played really well,” Gamero said. “We put in a lot of effort, we played tough but ended up losing.”

Junior Anna McCallon agreed the team played as hard as they could, but also thinks there is room for improvement.

“I think we do really well as a team,” McCallon said. “We could improve on just keeping a positive attitude and keeping a good mental game.”

Gamero said the team had a great mindset going into the match and his team put in hard work compared to prior matches. 

“We had a better mentality and effort behind every match,” Gamero said.

Jacobson said losing against Benilde is always a let down, but it’s important to keep in mind that it’s just one match. 

“That’s always the one (Benilde’s girls’ tennis team) that tends to screw with our head and make us lose confidence in ourselves,” Jacobson said. “This is just one match, the next one will be better.” 

The team redeemed their loss the following day with a win against Minneapolis South 7-0.

According to Jacobson it felt good to win after such a hard loss. 

The next match is against Bloomington Jefferson at 4:15 Sept. 28 at  St. Louis Park High school.