By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
LINWOOD – The Mainland Regional girls tennis team swept the Ocean City Red Raiders Thursday, Oct. 1, at home, during an admittedly “weird” season.
Girls tennis normally has the shortest season of all the fall sports, getting into playoffs when most other sports are still partway into their regular seasons. With COVID-19 limiting play this year and the season starting at the end of September rather than the beginning, the Mustangs will have only 10 regular season matches over the course of four weeks.
“It’s pretty much a month,” coach Kathy Yohe said of the season. “Our first match was Sept. 28 and our last match is Oct. 22. We only have 10 matches. We’re only playing five teams. It’s definitely shorter.
The Mustangs are well positioned with four of last year’s varsity players back on the courts this fall.
“We’re pretty deep,” Yohe said. “We have some returning players and a couple of good freshmen, so they’re playing well.”
First singles is Khushi Thakkar. Second singles is Charlotte Walcoff, a junior, and third singles is Hannah Carson, also a junior.
First doubles features Anna Geubtner, a junior, and Elizabeth Ong, a freshman.
At second doubles there are two teams who are rotating – Maddie Dennis, a freshman, and Emma Savov, a sophomore; and the other team is Lexi Jacob, a junior, and Riley Murray, a senior.
“Everybody is returning varsity except for Riley Murray, who was JV last year, and the two freshmen. We have four out of seven back.”
The coach said the girls have been putting work into their games.
“I’m really happy with the way they are playing. They’ve all improved, too,” Yohe said. “I thought they were doing well last year, but they are really playing well this year.
“Charlotte and Hannah have both improved at second and third (singles) and are playing really well. I think everybody has worked really hard … They did some distance captain practices when we couldn’t get together (coaches were barred from in-person coaching the first two weeks of September). They’re good. They’re working hard.”
Yohe still isn’t sure what to make of plans for the postseason, which are still up in the air for most fall sports at this point because of uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus as schools continue to adapt to restrictions and the ongoing fear sports and other activities could be canceled at any point.
“It’s a really weird season,” Yohe said. “We’re trying to win all of our matches. I don’t know if that is possible. We’re playing teams we’ve never played before. I don’t know a lot about them. The only teams that we’re playing that we’ve played before are Ocean City and Atlantic City. So it’s going to be different.
“As far as playoffs, I’m still not sure how that is going to work. Whatever. They say we’re having something so we’ll see,” she said.
In spite of the uncertainty, there is joy just being out on the courts again.
“They’re very happy to be out here playing and I’m happy for them to be out here playing. It’s nice. We have a great, great group of girls. It’s a pleasure to be out here with them.”
Mainland 5, Ocean City 0
At first singles, Khushi Thakkar beat Charis Holmes, 6-0, 6-0.
At second singles, Charlotte Walcoff won over Emily Tumelty, 6-1, 6-2.
At third singles, Hannah Carson defeated Alexis Allegretto, 6-1, 6-2.
Mustang first doubles Anna Geubtner and Elizabeth Ong won, 6-2, 6-3, over Ciera Howard and Noelle Graham.
And at second doubles, Maddie Dennis and Emma Savov beat Ocean City’s Paige Brown and Zoe Bourgeois, 6-0, 6-2.