By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
The Hun School and Stuart Country Day School girls tennis teams showed promise as they wrapped up their seasons in their respective prep circles.
Hun closed the year with a second-place finish in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League tournament. The Raiders used their balanced lineup to finish with 24 points, just three behind team champion Lawrenceville and eight points ahead of third-place Peddie.
”We played great,” said first-year Hun head coach Cheryl Beal. “We brought our ‘A’ game to the tournament. It’s definitely kind of nice to finish that way. Everything came together for the girls. The girls were really excited to finish second. I was kind of worried about Peddie and they prevailed. We were really only three points behind Lawrenceville. Lawrenceville is hard to compete against. They’re the ones to beat.”
Stuart shut out Nottingham and gave Pennington all it could handle in a 3-2 loss with one of its three seniors picking up a win in the season’s final match. Earlier, the Tartans had won a pair of matches in the Prep B state tournament.
”It went pretty well,” said Stuart head coach Katherine Stoltenberg. “We had some good competition. We had some wins in the play-in matches. The Prep B tournament is always competitive. Our girls showed some good fight and spirit in the matches. It was also a very chilly, windy condition day.”
In the Prep B tournament, it was the Tartans’ top two seniors that earned victories with Maya Kuang winning her first match at first singles and Julia Rourke capturing her first match at second singles. Mia Austria played doubles with a new partner in the Prep B tournament.
”We definitely have some big shoes to fill next year,” Stoltenberg said. “But I think the girls that have been on varsity have a good two years as well as our top JV players. They got some experience in some varsity matches. That’s great to see. We pride ourselves in being one program. The varsity and JV, we practice together and do a lot of things together. We try to groom them for the next year when we do lose those players.”
The Tartans will lose two players from the top of their lineup. Stoltenberg has valued the contributions of Kuang and Rourke.
”Maya and Julia are two-time captains,” Stoltenberg said. “Both of them were at first and second singles last year as well and their experience at the position helped us a lot. Maya is a four-year varsity player. She climbed the ladder to get to No. 1 singles. She worked hard to change things and get to that spot. It’s a tough spot. You’re playing the best player from every team.
”Julia has been a rock at second singles. She’s been there four years. She’s a rock. She has a great serve and great groundstrokes.”
They welcomed their classmate Mia Austria into the top seven this season, and she helped to boost the doubles play.
”This was Mia’s first year on varsity,” Stoltenberg said. “She’s been at the top of JV ladder and been our swing player and had a few matches. She stepped into the second doubles position with Allie. They became a solid team and worked well together. It was good to see her break into the varsity lineup this year.”
The top returning player for the Tartans will be Caitlyn Delaney, a sophomore who won her final third singles match of the year over Pennington. Pam and Natalie McGowen are juniors who played doubles, while sophomore Annie Liang picked up experience in the Prep B tournament.
In the MAPL tournament, Hun finished second in four of the flights and third in the other. The MAPL tournament uses four singles flights and one doubles flight. Paige Braithwaite finished with a good showing against the top prep player in the area.
”My No. 1 lost in a very tight match,” Beal said. “They played pro sets, and she played Shivani Gupta from Peddie. It was 9-7 in a pro set. It was a tough year. She lost her mom. It was a great way for her to finish. She had lost 6-1, 6-0, in the regular season, but she played better this time.
”Unfortunately the other girls all came up against Lawrenceville. They have a lot of a real talent.”
Stephanie Taylor was second at second singles, Tali Prozementer was runner-up at third singles and the doubles tandem of Nina Yoo and Olivia Kotler placed second. Caroline Wilkinson was third in the fourth singles slot.
”Nina Yoo is part of the doubles team that had an amazing season,” said Beal of Yoo, who had played with Olivia Hartman for the regular season. “They made semifinals in the county and semifinals in the states. They did a great job.”
Beal was particularly happy to see the Raiders finish ahead of Peddie, a team that they lost to in the regular season. It showed their progress.
”We lost in the regular MAPL season, 3-4,” Beal said. “It was very, very tight. We had three tiebreak sets. My No. 4 singles, Caroline, was injured so we weren’t really at our full capacity.
”I’m very thrilled with how they progressed,” she added. “It was very gratifying at the MAPLs. A couple of the girls, I told them things and gave them tips, and I think it helped them win. They listened and won. That’s the fun part of coaching. It’s very rewarding. It’s a nice team and they work hard.”
Beal already knew how special a group it was by the way they handled a true loss.
”In the middle of the season, my No. 1 lost her mom and the girls rallied around her mom and wore teal ribbons for ovarian cancer,” Beal said. “I think it helped her to get through it.”
The Raiders expect to continue to develop heading into next year when they will return five of their top seven. With only two seniors to replace, and after a strong finish, Hun feels it has a strong starting spot for next season.
”We’re losing Stephanie Taylor and Olivia Hartman,” Beal said. “We’re losing our second and seventh. Everyone else is coming back. It’s pretty exciting. We have some people that have been looking at the school and we’re talking to and hopefully some of them come through.”
