On November 1, the 6th seeded LACES Girls Tennis team defeated Banning High School to win the CIF Division II City Championship. It is their second championship in 3 years as they won the DII championship in 2021.
Most of the varsity team participated in the championship game with the team playing both singles and doubles. Senior captains Naomi Patel, Kylie Monterosso and Sophie Gopen along with sophomore Samara Wittenberg played singles, which is reserved for the top 4 players on the team. Juniors Kaitlyn Player, Kendal Smith, Hanna Bekele, Emma Caputo-Pearl, Paige Ludwick, Emma Wilson and sophomores Tiffany Carter and Riley Kim played doubles matches.
Kim, one of the brand new players, even got a chance to play during the championships. She played doubles with Carter and won a match. The progress of the tennis team was so prominent that even other coaches had noticed.
“I even had other coaches come up to me saying, ‘I don’t know what you did,’” said Coach Mr. Philip Chung. “I knew I wasn’t the one doing much because all I did was watch them. They’ll go out there and practice, and all I do is stay as late as they want to. Then they would practice until 6:00~6:15 when the late buses came.”
This year’s team consisted of 20 players, nearly half of which were brand new to the sport.
Despite this, many of the new players made sure to put in extra effort to gain more experience with tennis and get better.
“We worked really hard, coming to practice 3 times a week,” said sophomore Chloe Bonilla, a first time player on the JV team.
The hard work of the new players was noticed by veteran players.
“It was great to see the progression and dedication the newcomers put in throughout this season,” said senior team captain Naomi Patel. “I know they’re going to do great things next year.”
Winning this year’s championship game was a great reward for the girls tennis team, it really showed that this season was all about hard work and dedication.
“Their work paid off as we won city championships,” said Chung. “I’m exceptionally proud of their incredible work and I could not be more proud of them. Some of our players could take a few points off of me.”
