This team is together. This team is tight. If anything is going to take the North girls tennis players beyond their impressive 14-2 record of last year, it will be their very visible team spirit.##M:[more]##
Sophomore Alma Chang, the Knight’s No. 3 ranked singles player, says “as a whole group, we constantly cheer each other on. It really pumps us up and gets us motivated.” Chang, a relative latecomer to the game, picked up a racket in eighth grade and under her father’s tutelage has become a top competitor.
Knights Coach Albert Paulson agrees, “you see a great camaraderie among these girls.” Paulson also cites his players’ strong individual commitment to the game and the good blend of both returning and new varsity players. He made no cuts of the Knights’ 26-member team.
“If we lack anything, I would have to say it’s killer instinct,” noted Paulson in an interview conducted early in the season. “We don’t always charge the net; we sometimes hang by the baseline.” However, Paulson, who also coaches the boys, notes that the charge and slam technique is typically a more masculine style, while the girls, as he puts it, “depend more on fundamentals and strong volleys.”
But enough of that killer instinct came forth for the Knights to finish fifth in the Mercer County tournament, just behind High School South, and to see their top-seeded player, Jacqueline Wong, capture first place in singles. Wong spent her summer traveling the competitive circuit of nationals and Supernationals, earning an admirable ranking of 75th in the United States.
Wong doesn’t remember when she was not playing tennis. In addition to training under two coaches for nationals, she works year round with private coach Ian Griffith.
Wong radiates dedication. Recently, Coach Paulson took his girls on a field trip to the U.S. Open. All of the girls were naturally excited as they had a chance to witness Roger Fetterer’s center court magic first hand. But through it all, Wong just stared and studied. “I watched the turn of his head. I saw way several players added a wrist snap to their serve. I came back with a lot of technique,” says Wong. “In the top players, it’s something in the stance and in the move. I can’t describe it, but I know it when I see it.”
Beyond Wong, the Knights boast a strong depth of talent. Jackie Tseng’s earning the number two singles spot on the varsity, she feels has been a family affair. For years her grandfather, father, uncles and others in the clan have played together and passed on their skills.
The new doubles team of junior Betsy Bourassa and freshman Caroline Chang has won first doubles ranking as the season starts. “Doubles is a whole different game,” says Bourassa. “There is so much learning and communication. We have to know what shots each of us can’t get and where our strengths are.”
Like Chang and Bourassa, second doubles team sophomore Sindthu Ranjan and freshman Natasha Sastri along with third team Kathy Chu and Arushi Goel, both seniors, each run special drills for court coordination.
As a coach, Paulson likes to take advantage of the girls individual commitment. He is a team builder who mentors techniques. He is not a drill sergeant. As a result, the casual observer might mistakenly view the Knights’ practice as a rather relaxed affair. Jackie Wong stands on one leg, holding the other folded up as she leads her team in stretches. From 75 feet across court a beep is heard. Without missing a beat, Wong calmly hops over, answers her cell phone, and then hops back to practice. Not a head turns; this is quite common. Players can occasionally be seen answering phones during warm up volleys. Whether it’s running laps or volleying, there is a lot of laughter amid the labor. Sports are played, after all, to have fun.
Yet do not be deceived by the lack of rigidity. These players are filled with what Paulson terms commitment to the game. They talk constantly about new techniques, they work diligently to hone just one small aspect of their game, and their on-court intensity is obvious. Put all this together with that exceptional camaraderie and the 2005 Knights may just improve on last year’s enviable 14-2 record.
South: Rebuilding
It’s funny being the only senior on the team this year,” says South tennis captain Carrie Wills. “But we have some new strong varsity additions that will more than make up for the loss of the two powerful seniors last year.”
As the season was about to get underway, co-captain Joelle Nitzberg, a returning junior and first ranked singles player, agreed that the 2005 Pirates have great potential. “But because we have so many new players we really are lacking in match experience. I guess that means we’ll really have to struggle this year, and next year we should be amazing.”
By their standard the Pirates have struggled, but they still can boast a 5-2 record as they enter the NJSIAA tournament this week. But the September 20 loss, 1-4, against the Hun School seemed to give some credence to Nitzberg’s assessment. In the old powerhouse days South might have crushed even a high caliber prep opponent such as Hun. This time, coming off a 5-0 victory over Hightstown the day before, the Pirates felt confident, but were aware that Hun presented a much tougher opponent.
From the first game, Nitzberg began defeating her opponent with dispatch. For the others, it became an uphill push early on. Second ranked singles player Annie Scharfstein wrestled with atypical control problems. Usually, this freshman southpaw is known for her ball placement. At barely 5-feet-1, Scharfstein admits, “I just don’t have the angle for a killer serve and I do have trouble reaching high lobs, but from the baseline I can work the ball pretty well.” This time, however, all her strategy did not run her opponent ragged.
Allison Kempf, a sophomore holding the third ranking also known for her strong volleying ability played well but was at last defeated. Before her match, she had noted that the team and she individually needed a stronger net game.
One upset against Hun was the defeat of first Pirates’ doubles duo Wills and junior Jenna Stanton. These girls were particularly predicted to be a strong combination since they had played as doubles last year. Junior Nisha Javeri who normally partners with the injured Cynthia Hu (sophomore) to form the second doubles team was replaced by Junior Julie Afinogenova. Unfamiliar with each others style, the girls played well, but could not glean victory.
“I realized at the outset this was going to be a rebuilding year,” says girls tennis coach Kris Javick. “But we have several elements going in our favor — mostly consistency and tenacity. I don’t mean they are aggressive, but these girls really hang in there and fight every point.” Working in her own hometown, Javick played tennis for WW-P High School, graduating in 1995. Graduating from Rutgers University with a B.A. in history, Javick returned to WW-P, where since 2000 she has coached girls tennis and taught social studies to grades 9 and 12.
One of the things she loves about tennis as a team sport is that rank is totally merit motivated. Teams have a running placement ladder, in which challenge matches are held continually. Unlike so many team sports, positions are not won at the outset and held all through the season, leaving players permanently on the bench or off. Any player from below could work her way up and seize the number three spot and represent her school in the next interscholastic match.
“It can make things more fluid,” says Javick, but it does give the team a better chance and each girl a better experience. Of the 30 girls who tried out in August, 16 made the team with four alternates. This lesser team size makes climbing the ladder into varsity a bit less daunting.
While there may be fluidity in the lineup, there is none on the practice court. “No girl answers a cell phone during one of my practices,” Javick says. Actually, by starting their season with four flooded out games, the tennis playing Pirates have had few days of pure practice. Most sports have a minimum of four games weekly, but not tennis. “This intensified schedule is going to definitely take a toll on us,” said Javick. “But it is a problem we share with most of our opponents.”
— by Bart Jackson
