On Monday, the girls varsity tennis team took on Hudsonville in its first match of the season; with a completely new lineup from last year, the team didn’t play to its best ability at every spot, leading to a narrow 5-3 defeat. Although the loss was tough to swallow, playing against this Division 1 Hudsonville team won’t count against the Rangers too much when it comes to state seeding.

The singles lineup was the most successful, with 1 singles and 3 singles both coming out with a win. Both of these singles players were returning, so the nerves of their first matches weren’t there, unlike other new girls on the team.

With this experience, junior Mandy Ehrlich at 1 singles and sophomore Emily Johnson at 3 singles both won in tough matches. Emily struggled in the first set to fall 6-3 but bounced back in the next two sets to win 6-4 and 6-1 and ultimately claim the match title. Junior Andrea Wang competed in a close match as well; however, she eventually lost 7-6 and 6-4 to drop the match during a third-set tiebreaker—this was the toughest match of the day not only because Andrea had defeated her opponent twice last year, but because winning yesterday would have tied the score overall. Playing 4 singles, sophomore Mina Siebert put up a fight in her first varsity match against a very solid opponent but lost as well.

While the singles won two matches, 2 doubles, consisting of senior Emily Benson and junior Isabella Notarnicola, played well enough to win their match for the doubles flights. These two played well together, communicated well, and didn’t make a lot of mistakes, which led to their victory. Although no other doubles flights won, each competed hard and stayed positive the whole time, which is an important quality to have in such a long season.

With this being all the girls’ first matches of the season, the ending result wasn’t bad competing against a great Hudsonville team. FHC will look to shake off its rust for the next match after Spring Break on April 11 at West Ottawa.