Girls varsity tennis went to West Ottawa on Thursday and got swept 7-0. Although each flight didn’t play its best tennis, the girls were fighting from behind before the matches even started: junior Mandy Ehrlich, who won at 1 singles against Hudsonville last week, was injured with a hurt ankle; freshman Libby Moog is still out with a concussion, and senior Emily Benson couldn’t play due to sickness. This meant that players were getting bumped up to better flights against tougher competition where they don’t usually play.

Although the girls were in an unfamiliar spot and got swept in the gusting wind, many flights started to earn momentum as their match went on—2 doubles, consisting of juniors Courtney Fox and Isabella Notarnicola, was one of these flights. They competed hard and dealt with a lot of first set errors, but eventually lost in a tight second set. Another flight who competed in a close match was 1 doubles with seniors Katie McClure and Lyndsay Werkema—they lost the first set 6-3 and lost the second set 6-2; although the score indicates a match handily won by West Ottawa, each game could have gone either way but the Rangers couldn’t pull a lot of them out.

“We didn’t play our best, but we competed which is a great thing,” head coach Dan Bolhouse said. “I’m excited to get our complete team on the court together soon.”

The Rangers compete next on Monday at rival and state championship contender Forest Hills Northern.