An unexpected sickness from line two freshman Leah Spencer caused chaos in the lineup for the girls’ varsity tennis team’s match against Lake Brantley on March 11. 

Usually, freshman Abigail Rawls plays line one doubles with Spencer, but due to her absence, junior Faith Walsh was pulled up from line two doubles to play with Rawls. This change caused a mixup on line two doubles, with freshman Khushi Patil now playing with sophomore Ayushi Patel. 

“I played multiple games with line 2, Leah Spencer, who is also a really good friend of mine. Since we have been practicing and we have a good connection it’s been easy,” Rawls said. 

Before the game, players did not have the chance to play with their new partners due to the preparation for districts, so this change in the doubles lineup yielded unfavorable results for Hagerty, with line one doubles losing 8-2 and line two doubles losing 8-3. 

The change in the lineup also translated into the singles, with every line moving up a slot to fill the absence of Spencer. Line one lost with a score of 8-2, lines two through four lost with scores of 0-8, and line five lost 4-8, leading to an overall 7-0 loss for Hagerty.

Freshman Hyewon Kim was completely new to the lineup, playing line five singles for the first time this season. At the start of her match, Kim was up 2-1, but then her opponent won three games to go up 4-2. After regrouping, Kim fought back to make the score 5-4. Although she lost, she was in deuce multiple times and played strong. 

“I feel like I had really good rallies and made really good shots, but my mental game was a little weak. I can see myself getting better throughout the season, which is good to see,” Kim said. 

The tennis team lost three players this season and is now made up of six freshmen and four returning players. The team’s record is 7-1, with a win against Winter Springs 5-2 at the start of the season. 

The team is scheduled to play away at Lake Mary on Tuesday, March 25.