Middle: The varsity tennis team with Cardenas and Siennicki on the far left.
Left: Gabriella Cardenas serves during a match against Central
Right: I’m going to get a picture of Bella playing tennis as well
The tennis season is well underway, with many girls playing on both JV and varsity. While varsity is mostly made up of upperclassmen, there are three freshmen in varsity: Gabriella Cardenas, Rosabella Siennicki, and Naomi Thomas. While Thomas is homeschooled, Cardenas and Siennicki attend Delta High School.
Cardenas and Siennicki play varsity tennis on a doubles team. Their record is five wins, four losses, while they still try their hardest to win.
Being some of the only freshmen on varsity comes with some challenges. Most players on the varsity team are juniors or seniors, so Cardenas and Siennicki are younger than most. “Some challenges of being a freshman on varsity are having to play against challenging teams, especially ones who have seniors as their number three doubles team,” Cardenas said.
Tennis is a challenging sport in general. It’s very different from other sports, and Siennicki reflected on that: “You get your spot on varsity by playing challenge matches and going until you lose,” Siennicki said.
Cardenas reflected on the challenges of the actual sport, explaining the more technical challenges of the sport: “Challenges of tennis in general for me are developing consistent groundstrokes, managing pressure, having mental focus, and adapting to different opponents,” Cardenas said.
Even if these come with challenges, the rewards are even better. They get the experience of playing and learning from the older and more experienced players. Siennicki and Cardenas reflected on some of the players they were most inspired by.“I would say Chloe Sharpe. She is amazing at tennis, has amazing sportsmanship, and is a positive player to be around,” Cardenas said.
Siennicki also has some older players that she looks up to. “Rebecca Gonzalez-Franco was the person who inspired me to play tennis. She took me to the courts and taught me the basics of tennis,” Siennicki said.
Cardenas and Siennicki also have lots of good parts on playing tennis on the varsity team. “The best part of playing on varsity is the girls and the time we spend together, and the experiences. ‘varsity only matches’- the team ends up going someplace, like a random chicken place, a coffee shop, etc,” Cardenas said.
Siennicki also explained how the environment is very different than other sports. “Everyone on the team is so supportive of each other and notices each other’s achievements. The coaches are always supportive, whether you win or lose,” Siennicki said.
Cardenas and Siennicki have said that they feel very happy with their accomplishments. They feel very accomplished with making the varsity team and hope to continue to play on this team and get better. “Even coaches from other teams have congratulated Gabby and I’s accomplishments. Coming into this season, I really didn’t know what to expect, but this season is the best thing that could have happened,” said Siennicki.
