The 2015 varsity women’s tennis team hopes to work hard and keep their heads held high throughout the meets, according to junior Captain Sophie Hensley.

Hensley acknowledges that the team is relatively young this year, so it’s hard for inexperienced players to compete against the top ranked players in Illinois. According to junior Riley Ondrula, the number one and two singles players are sophomores Kendall Oldham and Nicole Sedenkov, and four juniors make up the number one and two doubles pairs.

“It’s different, because we have less upperclassmen and less seniors playing the higher positions, and I think it has changed the dynamic of our team,” Ondrula said. “It has just been an interesting change, because last year, it was almost all seniors in those positions, so it has been fun, and it has been nice to see those younger people getting to play.”

According to head coach Stephanie Mats, this season is a rebuilding year as the team lost a lot of top players from last year. Their goal is to get stronger as a team and see what it brings.

“We’re a lot younger team, so we are definitely trying to establish a lineup and see who is going to play where,” Mats said. “Last year it was an older team. A lot of seniors already had their spots and places on the team.”

According to Hensley, the team has been focusing on poaching- putting the ball away at the net. The team also works on consistency, cross court hitting and keeping the ball in play. Another important aspect of the game is the cheering, so the team has been working on their energy as well.

“[Against New Trier], we had one singles and one doubles playing,” Ondrula said. “They were the last two teams on the court against New Trier, it was a big match. All of us were sitting and cheering them on, and we were all together sitting next to each other; it was just nice to have our whole team cheering for one goal.”

Hensley recalls that when she and her partner, Nicole Blinov, the number one doubles pair, beat New Trier, it was one of their proudest moments.

“The past two years that Nicole and I have been on varsity, we haven’t beaten [New Trier], so it was just one of those moments where you’ll never forget it,” Hensley said.

Ondrula says the team has had three meets so far. They placed third out of eight teams at the Fremd Invite and second at the Loyola Invite.

“We played New Trier and lost three matches to four, which is really close for New Trier,” Ondrula said. “We beat Hersey at the beginning of the season, lost to Glenbrook North and lost to Loyola, but we were close with Loyola.”

According to Ondrula, for the remainder of the season, the team’s goal is to get back to state and do well at state. The team also strives to win as many conference matches as they can and play well together while keeping the team unified.

The next time the Titans hit the courts will be against Stevenson on Oct. 2.