Girls’ tennis suffers loss in first game against Harvard Westlake

The Samo girls’ varsity tennis team suffered a loss in its first match of the season to Harvard Westlake on Tuesday, Sept. 8, with a final score of 4-14.According to Chrysoula Kapelonis (’16), Senay Ozkan (’17) and Cami Khalili (’16), the girls went into the game lacking necessary confidence due to their knowledge that Harvard-Westlake was more seasoned.Sophie Gelfand (’18) and Devon Leight (’18) won their doubles match, with a tiebreaking score of 7-0.“We had good communication which definitely helped,” Leight said. “Although we weren’t hitting the best shots we still came through at the end by communicating well and being confident.”Although communication was a strength, the Samo team is still developing the skills needed to compete with teams like Harvard-Westlake.“It was a tough matchup for us to begin with and we’re still not set with our lineup but we’re working on it,” Poon said. “Westlake was a little more seasoned, because they have more tournament players on their team and they play a lot more than us. Our players are more on the younger side and they don’t play year-round as Westlake does.”This is not the end of the season, but just the beginning. Team personnel is confident that they will grow as a team.“We hope to click as a team and really hope to get our singles and doubles teams on track and get some wins under our belts,” Poon said. “We have a tough pre-season which will prepare us for league, so we will be ready.”