Tennis has a proud tradition at Charles Wright Academy.  The school boasted one of the best boys teams in the state throughout the 1970s, won a state title in 1988, and garnered back-to-back state titles in 2007 and 2008.  The girls team also has a long tradition of excellence and won league and district champions in both 2008 and 2009, but they have never claimed a state championship title for Charles Wright.  The team is just warming up for their first match of the season, scheduled for March 22, but their coach says this year the Tarriers have a legitimate shot at that elusive trophy.  

Like cross-country, track and field, golf and other sports in which players compete both individually and as teams, tennis is a sport in which the regular season is really all about preparing for the post-season.  Spring turnout began March 8 and players competed against one another for spots on the varsity and JV roster.  Sixteen players made the cut, based on available court space on campus, and began preparing for their 15 scheduled matches.

Individual wins and losses will add up to team scores at each match.  For instance, the #1 single player from one team faces the #1 singles player from the other team and the victor is awarded one point toward their team total.  At the end of the regular season, the team with the most league wins will be named the league champ.

Throughout the regular season players are free to switch roles.  Coaches will experiment with different doubles combinations and depending on the caliber of play they expect from each school, give various players an opportunity to play up or down in the rankings.  The Tarriers two top goals this year are to complete an undefeated season and win the league championship, just as the CWA boys team did in the fall.

Post-season play begins in mid-May with the league tournament.  In tournament competition, teams accrue points based on their final standings within the singles and doubles competitions.  At the league tournament, wins and losses determine who qualifies for the quad-district tournament.  This is the point at which players will commit to either singles competition or doubles pairings.  The league sends three doubles teams and three singles players on to the quad-district event which is held at the University of Washington the following week.  In order to win the district team title, the Tarriers will need to qualify several competitors and they will need to do well.  As a result, coaches must consider both how successful individual competitors will be in each division and how successful the team will be as a whole as they assign singles and doubles roles.

The quad-district title is important, but the Tarriers are hungry for a state championship so they are anxious to qualify as many players as possible for the state tournament in Yakima the last weekend of May.  “To win a state title, we probably need to advance three entries to the semifinals to collect enough points,” explains CWA Coach Reini Vanderheyd.  “This year we have a very deep team at the varsity level, so we have a real shot.”

As they make that run, CWA will be leaning heavily on the Tarriers two co-captains, the most experienced players on the team.

CWA’s 2010 team is led by senior Megan Kelley, a four-year veteran of the varsity squad, and junior Sara Finkelman.  Kelley, who has already committed to play tennis next year at Hamilton College, has made two trips to the state tournament.  Last year she competed in doubles with Sarika Halarnaker who is now a junior.  The duo made it as far as the state semifinals together.  “They lost a match they could have won,” recalls Vanderheyd.  “Ultimately I think they could have beaten either of the teams that wound up in the state finals.”

This year Vanderheyd expects Kelley will predominately compete as a singles player throughout the regular season.  Whether she competes in singles or doubles in the post-season will depend on the competition as well as her performance over the next eight weeks.

When she competes in doubles, Kelley will likely be paired with Halarnaker again.  “We consider them opposites, as players, so they complement each other well,” says Vanderheyd.  “Megan is a powerful player.  Sarika’s strength is her foot speed and service returns.”

Finkelman, who serves as Kelley’s co-captain, has competed at districts twice and she is the team’s most experienced tournament player.  The high level of play she sees outside of school should give her an advantage during the post season.  “She’s known for her strong serve and ground strokes,” says Vanderheyd.  She’ll likely be the Tarriers number one singles player but when she plays doubles she may work with another junior singles player, Jean Kim.  Kim also competed in singles at the district tournament last year.  Senior Nicole Schmiedl is also expected to compete in singles play or to pair with junior Julia Donner.

Juniors Jackie Kirschner and Natalie Weyerhaeuser are expected to contribute as a doubles team.  “Jackie has really worked on her game during the off-season and she’s come in very strong,” says Vanderheyd.  Senior Shrina Patel and junior Sarah Johnson will also likely compete as doubles partners.

Rounding out the Tarriers roster are freshman Devika Agrawal, sophomore Kate Jewson, sophomore Caitlin Mahan, freshman Tina Patel, freshman Stephanie Stacy and junior Caroline Thompson.