{"id":3216,"date":"2023-04-20T10:43:32","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T14:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=3216"},"modified":"2023-04-20T10:43:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T14:43:33","slug":"river-hill-hawks-tennis-team-on-the-rise-once-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/river-hill-hawks-tennis-team-on-the-rise-once-again\/","title":{"rendered":"River Hill Hawks Tennis Team on the Rise Once Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sara Solimani, Opinions Editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting off fresh in March with a new season, the River Hill tennis team is looking forward to setting new records this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After ending last year\u2019s season on a high note with two class 3A state champions, the competitive air from previous tournament wins persists during recent games. Going 8-0, the River Hill tennis team remains undefeated this season; they\u2019ve played against several schools – Atholton, Mt. Hebron, Glenelg – all of whose teams are spectacular. River Hill is putting their best foot forward this year to match last year\u2019s accomplishments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Pfefferkorn played a big role in last year\u2019s achievements as the coach of the tennis team. She still continues to do so as she expresses her excitement and the pride she has for the tennis team. Coach states, \u201cI\u2019m really excited. I think we have a good team dynamic. I think we have our state title to defend so that’s certainly something that we\u2019re working toward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent games, players on the tennis team have faced some challenges along with the successes from winning the matches. Since the nature of some schools tend to be more competitive, so does the atmosphere of the tennis court during these matches. Sophomore Julia Cabacar, who played during the match against Marriott\u2019s Ridge on March 29th, comments how, \u201cIt was definitely intimidating to go up against Marriot\u2019s Ridge because they are one of our bigger competitors.\u201d Coach Pfefferkorn also shares these sentiments and continues, \u201cOne of our bigger rivals is Marriotts Ridge and we beat them on the guys and the girls side and that was a big win for us and we have a couple big matches coming up next week. Centennial is always competitive with us and Howard has a really good team so we\u2019re just preparing for that.\u201d It was safe to say that these fears were subsided by the end of the game when River Hill took it home with a score of 4-1 for the girls and 5-0 for the boys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This competitiveness has been a highlight of tennis at River Hill throughout the years. Even as the tennis team has been able to stay strong despite all of the challenges, the coach and the team know what to look out for. Coach Pfefferkorn points out that, \u201cBecause we have a good track record with winning, people want to put their strongest lineups against us and they want to beat us,\u201d Julia notes, \u201cSince we\u2019re a stronger school, there are a lot more better players than I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a team, the players are working hard to practice together and improve their skills. Junior JJ Salter, starting his second year on the team, describes how \u201cduring practices we do matchplay to prepare for our games. We play against the other people on the team,\u201d Coach Pfefferkorn adds, \u201cPractice is really minimal since we have so many matches but putting different combinations of players together to see who goes well together and to see who is stronger at singles versus doubles,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the tennis team has only 8 starting spots for boys and girls, the team seems to be smaller compared to other sports. Along with only having a varsity team, this difference can affect the team\u2019s dynamics in several ways. Julia expresses that, \u201cIt\u2019s a little more isolated at times because It feels like you\u2019re working together but not really at the same time,\u201d Even though this may be the reality of tennis in some aspects, it is still a team sport in the ways that count. Julia goes on to say, \u201cI like the dynamic because we\u2019re all helping each other\u2026 we all want the team to improve so even if there is competition for some spots, we\u2019re still trying to help each other,\u201d Junior Ella Jiao, who is returning for her 3rd year on the tennis team, agrees, \u201cThis year everyone is friends with each other which is really nice and it’s definitely different from the previous years because I feel like this year everyone is more connected with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excitement builds as state champions and the height of this year\u2019s tennis season turns the corner. So many are hanging off the edge of their seat with anticipation while others are enjoying the present before what\u2019s to come. To share her thoughts, Coach states, \u201cI think that we do deserve a spot in the state championships, I think that we have a really strong team but it also fluctuates with the other teams near here, I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re going to put out so sometimes that\u2019s a surprise but I think we have really strong players this year,\u201d Mostly everyone is trying to stay optimistic amidst all of the buzz. Julia says, \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to counties and states because they\u2019re really fun,\u201d and Ella follows with, \u201cI really like my team this year so I think just hanging out with my team and doing team bonding is going to be fun,\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned as we cheer on the tennis team during this year\u2019s buzzing season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sara Solimani, Opinions Editor Starting off fresh in March with a new season, the River Hill tennis team is looking forward to setting new records this season.  After ending last year\u2019s season on a high note with two class 3A state champions, the competitive air from previous tournament wins persists during recent games. Going…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[286,269,211,285,19,563],"class_list":["post-3216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-journalism","tag-rhhs","tag-river-hill","tag-river-hill-high-school","tag-sports-2","tag-tennis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_8042-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3220,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions\/3220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}