MSMS Tennis Team has done great so far this season. We have won every district game that we have played, and usually by a landslide. But our greatest victory has been against South Pontotoc, our greatest competition. South Pontotoc beat us pretty badly last year and were the district champs, but they did not know what hit them this year. With over half the MSMS team being new juniors, there were huge changes in the line up. But in this case, change was good.

For example, junior Morgan Dollar has played tennis for years and played Girls’ Singles for the varsity team at her home high school. Although she usually plays singles, her incredible net play makes her an invaluable doubles player, too. When Aylin stepped up to play singles this year, we decided to try Morgan in Girls Doubles with me. All I can say is she has really been a gift from the gods. She has adjusted to playing doubles seamlessly, and her skill at the net makes up for my weakness.

Also, both of our number two doubles are made up entirely of juniors. We have Maggie Ford and Hannah Houston in Girls Doubles and Noah Mckone and John Howell in Boys Doubles. All are experienced players who played on their home school’s teams for multiple years before joining our team. This makes them Thesolid players who perform consistently at each match.

We started off the season playing rookie teams like Aberdeen and Nettleton whose players were both young and inexperienced. This initially worried me because I thought that when we played better and more experienced teams like South Pontotoc, we wouldn’t be ready for the challenge. But I shouldn’t have worried at all, because though the match got off to a rough start, each player on the court began adjusting their playing to match that of South Pontotoc’s players. Our playing was constantly improving as the match went on, and in the end, we won, not because of luck, but because we were simply better tennis players.