ISL Champions!

The tennis team ended the season this past Friday with a sweeping 7-0 victory over St. Mark's, our rival school. It was the culmination of a near-perfect season with a perfect 18-0 record against schools in the ISL along with Andover, Exeter, and Deerfield. This was our first full season as a team, and one that has felt long coming since I arrived on the Circle in Third Form. A combination of high-quality tennis players is essential to a successful season for sure, but there were other teams with high-quality players, perhaps even better on paper.

To be honest, I’m not really sure how to write about team tennis. I’ve grown up playing tennis solely as an individual sport, and even with doubles, I don’t deny that many aspects of team sports, especially winning as a team, are somewhat foreign to me. There is something different about winning as a team that is special. Sure, winning a tournament feels great, but what about the feeling of all your teammates rushing the court after a match is clinched or losing your voice at another school because the eight of you are trying to outshout the fifty people from an opposing school? This school year may be memorable for many reasons, including the looming prospect of college admissions, academic challenges, dorm life, walks on trails after the rain, the Groton Evening Softball League (GESL), late Saturday nights, and groggy Sunday mornings, but the 2022 Groton boys varsity tennis season will stay with me forever.