Senior leadership and team bond helps Quabbin tennis to undefeated start to season

The bond of on and off the court friendship has proven to be a successful asset to the Quabbin girls tennis team. The group has found early success this season, posting a 6-0 run and only dropping five matches total.

The Panthers rifled through the beginning of their schedule with big wins, dropping one match against Littleton to open the season – still winning 4-1 – and then going undefeated within every matchup until recently. They narrowly defeated Clinton, 3-2, and had another 3-2 win that was high pressure as it came down to the second doubles outcome.

Quabbin had a solid .500 season last year but has seen great improvements as the team has gained experience and returned a lot of the same athletes. All three singles players are seniors: Annabelle Magill, Carlee Rich and Camryn Orsini. The trio have been in their respective singles positions for several seasons now and their experience is helping to lead the rest of the team.

“They’ve been very responsive, the attitudes have been phenomenal, I can’t say that enough,” Quabbin head coach Garth Weiderman said. “It's a really really great group of kids.”

Magill, Rich and Orsini had to step up as just sophomores after a big group of seniors graduated and left a young and less experienced team.

“Sophomore year I did first singles and that was kind of just, like, we graduated all our seniors and I felt kind of thrown into it and it was loss after loss,” Magill said. “But I went down to third singles last year and I think that was good for me for boosting my confidence and now I’m back at first singles.”

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Magill has only lost one match, setting an impressive standard for herself thus far this season. Her focus and poise shines on the court, keeping a calm head in an intense and high pressure setting.

Farrah Wojcik and Kalina Dyer have won as a pair four times this season. Sometimes they are paired with other members of the team, but the changing of doubles partners doesn’t seem to have an effect on them.

“We’ve all become really good at playing with each other no matter who’s out there,” Wojcik said.

“I think there’s a lot of things that the girls have gotten better at as the season goes on,” Weiderman said. “I think they’ve improved their net shots and decision making and that's really been my focus, trying to get them confident.”

Second doubles’ Maddie Stauder and Elizabeth Matheson have grown tremendously. Just sophomores, Stauder and Matheson have been able to learn from the three seniors leading the team and start to find themselves on the court.

It came down to the duo on Wednesday against Littleton, where they swept their opponents in an eight-game pro set to keep Quabbin’s undefeated record. The teammates are also good friends off the court, helping the connection during a match. They have developed a positive relationship that allows them to push each other to work hard but also not pressure one another if mistakes happen.

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“I think no matter what happens on the court we always are happy and cheer each other up so I think that adds to it, we don’t feel any blame for what happens because we put forth our best effort,” Matheson said.

“We feel the pressure at first, we talk about it and say that we need to just lock in for this game, and I think that both of us, if something bad happens on the court we just laugh it off together because we know in reality it's not going to be that big of an issue I we miss one point,” Stauder added.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Quabbin tennis boasts benefit of tight-knit team bond