Blake's Tennis Team Wins the Division Title

- Team picture after winning the division (Photo Courtesy of Blake Athletics)

The Blake Girls Tennis Team wins their second division championship under Coach Krawczel.

The team finished off with an excellent record of 10-2 this year, and 5-0 in their conference play. The team was led by seniors Elaine Kaplan, Georgia Lo, Lauren McGinn, Carly Sines, Danielle Wolk, and Vanessa Wong, who have played tennis together all four years of high school. These seniors are leaders to the underclassmen on the team. “Since I have been on the team for four years, I can explain the history and the past of the tennis team and spread the enthusiasm for others and be an example for someone who loves tennis and have stayed on the team for four years,” Wong said about her role on the team.

Before every match, Coach Krawczel gives the same advice to the girls telling them to “swing away.” Krawczel tells the team this to prevent them from getting nervous before matches. “I tell them to just swing away and just try not to get nervous,” Krawczel says. “Swinging away means hit as hard as you can and try to get it in, try to place it well, if you don't, you don’t, and just to play confidently,” Lo adds about what swing away means to her.

One team strength that Krawczel and the players agree on is their doubles pairs. The team's doubles pairs helped them get a lot of their wins, resulting in their great record. “What really won most of our matches was our doubles teams ... in division play, I don’t think that they ever lost at all. I think all three doubles teams have won all five division matches pretty easily. So our doubles teams were very strong,” Krawczel says.

Coach Krawczel encourages the girls to play tennis in the off season to prepare them for the upcoming seasons at Blake. “I encourage them to play a lot during the off season… I remind everybody they have all summer to try to improve and work on their game,” Krawczel said.

Winning the division is always special for a team. Winning it this year was very special for the seniors because they won the division back in 2014 as freshman, and now get to close out their tennis careers with another title. “ They all really wanted to win their final year,” Krawczel said. “We got to come in on a good note and got to leave on a good note, so we are really happy about that,” Lo adds.

In the end, the seniors on the team won two division titles, the team went undefeated in conference play, and they won the division this year. That sounds like a very successful season Congrats.