Anyone who thinks three wins by Nottingham High’s girls’ tennis team this fall is not a big deal, think again.
And focus on the big picture.
For within that frame, it can be seen that the Northstars garnered as many victories this year as it had combined in the previous three seasons. It was their first three-win season this decade.
More importantly, eighth-year coach Kristin Dunham welcomed a group of 30 girls. “It’s our biggest turnout ever,” said Dunham, who, like many others, needed a pick-me-up after her Phillies crashed and burned again. “We kept adding girls during the year and actually turned down some girls late in the season who kept asking to join.”
Dunham said she did not do anything extra as far as recruitment.
“Word just spread,” she said. “The girls like it and they’re telling their friends.”
One of the major recruiters was third singles player Michela DiMeglio. The junior took tennis lessons a few weeks before her freshman year because she wanted to play a sport in high school.
“I had a few concussions. I’m very accident prone,” she said. “I figured I needed to find something that I could really play and put my heart into. That’s when I found tennis.”
There was a slim roster in DiMeglio’s first season, “and half our team was seniors and they were leaving the next year. I was like, ‘What am I gonna do next year?’ But people still came out.”
Not like this year, however, as DiMeglio beat the drum while sitting at the tennis table during 8th-grade orientation.
“I guess I was just really talkative,” she said with a laugh. “We had the rackets laid out on the table and a lot of them wanted to hit the ball but they couldn’t because we were in the gym.
“I just told them it’s a great way to be involved. It doesn’t take a lot. It just takes you wanting to learn the sport. I fell in love with it the second I learned how to play so I wanted to share that with other people.”
It was a job well done by DiMeglio.
“We have a lot of freshman and I was so excited to get to know everyone,” she said. “There were so many different people from different areas. Everybody has different personalities, so it’s fun.”
The fun really started in the season’s sixth match when Nottingham took a 5-0 win over Linden to snap a 21-match losing streak. Four days later the Stars topped Hamilton, 3-2, for their first back-to-back victories since 2019. Two matches later they topped Trenton for a third win.
“I didn’t know anything about Linden, so for me that wasn’t the most exciting match,” Dunham said. “But to beat West and Trenton in the same year, that was great. We didn’t have any expectations against Linden. We knew nothing about them. But beating West and Trenton was big for us.”
DiMeglio felt the Linden win was an accomplishment, saying, “I was like ‘Wow, our team is really good this year.’ That was big to win that early in the season.
“I mean it’s so crazy. We play all these prep schools that have private trainers and we’re just like, Nottingham. It’s almost like it’s not fair, but our coaches do such a good job of training us and strategizing. They’re the main reason we win matches.”
A county with schools like Princeton, Robbinsville, Princeton Day School, Notre Dame and the West Windsors is usually going to have high-powered teams. For Hamilton Township teams, it’s a win just to have a strong turnout consistently.
“I’m excited for my senior year,” DiMeglio said. “The improvement I’ve seen in our freshmen since they joined until now, it’s so crazy how much they’ve improved over two months.”
Nottingham will lose its top player, however, as first singles Yaneta Doe is a senior. Doe is only in her third year playing tennis, but Dunham said she seems like a savvy veteran considering the talent she shows on the court.
“Obviously first singles is the toughest match out there,” the coach said. “She’s really good at serving. She keeps it low to the net. She doesn’t get tired at all. She has no problem going into the third-set tiebreaker and playing for hours.
“She spent some time at practice trying to teach our new players how to serve better. Last week they wanted to run stations and there were only two of us coaches (Gary Meinhardt being the other) and 30 of them. We said ‘If you want to have stations, you have to help out.’”
Doe took that to heart.
“She always tries to help us and helped me with my serve,” DiMeglio said. “She’s very supportive of other people and she tries to help everyone improve the way that she’s improved during her career. She encouraged a lot of us to go to the NJTL (National Junior Tennis & Learning of Trenton). Yaneta is so important to me and I’m so sad she’s leaving.”
But DiMeglio is happy that Yuri Sanchez is coming back after playing second doubles this season.
“She’s been with us three years, and she was one of our captains this year,” Dunham said. “Unfortunately she’s been injured the last couple matches. She got an injured foot and but she played hard. She had wins in two of our victories.
“She pushed herself. There were matches I went up to her and I knew it was gonna be close and I said ‘We need you,’ and she did it.”
And then there was DiMeglio, who led the team with four victories at third singles.
“She has gotten more motivated and more confident as the season went on,” Dunham said. “She’s definitely been pushing herself more and realizing she can beat the opponent.”
DiMeglio also played several matches at second doubles when Sanchez was hurt.
“It was definitely harder,” she said. “We were playing Princeton when I was playing second singles. I was so scared. Yuri was cheering me on the whole time, telling me what she does and what I should do.”
The senior tandem of Aurora Bergren and Amelia Arif combined at first doubles. Their chemistry on the court helped them post wins in all three Stars victories.
“Their strong point is communication,” Dunham said. “Many seasons people are injured or taking taken college classes but they’ve gotten to play almost every match together. And they’re friends in real life so communication is their strong point. Many of our players turn out to be friends because of the team, they were friends before they got to the team.”
The second doubles team consisted of juniors Skye Falla Ochoa (a captain) and Shaina Mussirat.
“Shaina is very quiet but Skye loves to keep the girls on their toes and keep pushing them,” Dunham said. “She’s the first to lead them out for warm-up every day.”
The coach also praised sophomore Chinwe Odoemene, “our number eight player who is killing it at the net.” Odoemene teamed with fellow sophomore Mitchelie Prime to take both Princeton Day’s and Steinert’s second doubles to three sets.
“It was Mitchelie’s first time playing varsity,” Dunham noted.
Not only did the Northstars have a big turnout this year, they also had a lot of enthusiasm as they asked Dunham if they could do a tennis team Spirit Week.
“We had a different theme day every day,” the coach said. “We did a pink out, crazy sock day, and they wore their pajamas to practice one. It was good team unity.”
Pajamas?
“I didn’t wear any pajamas,” Dunham assured.
Neither did DiMeglio, who missed Pajama Day due to a doctor’s appointment but said “I loved Crazy Sock Day. I had South Park and Betty Boop socks.”
It was a season worth remembering for DiMeglio, and she is ready to start procuring more freshmen next year. In fact, she is still doing it this year.
“I still talk to kids in the hallway,” she said. “People only know about Mr. Meinhardt and Ms. Dunham as teachers. But I always talk so highly about them being good coaches. People say ‘What do you even do in tennis?’ and I tell them the whole thing and that they should join.”
Judging by the flood of players, she puts forth a convincing argument.
