Girls Tennis: 2020 Season

Since the COVID-19 Pandemic began in mid-March, many sports, clubs, and activities were completely cancelled for the 2019-20 school year. Students became increasingly concerned thinking that the 2020-21 fall sports program would also be shut down. On September 30th, Wayne Valley Girls Tennis was the first sport to open the Fall Sports Season, and the first sport to be able to compete since March’s cancelations. With a 5-0 win over West Milford, the team was already off to a strong start.

The 10 members of the Varsity team are led by Calvin Eng, a new coach hired in the team’s 2018-19 season from Chatham High School, a top tennis program, along with the 15 members of the JV team being led by Coach Don Moya, a new coach who was hired just last year. With these new coaches and their new and fresh style of instruction, the team became less about just the sport, but also about learning to improve one’s game, to compete, to bond, and best of all, to have fun. With no one being cut from the team this year, this is one of the largest Girls Tennis Teams that Wayne Valley has ever seen. 

The team continued to have an outstanding season, including a 7-0 winning start for Varsity, with a monumental 3-2 win over rival school, Wayne Hills. At this match, 1st singles player Liza Kiseleva, 1st doubles players Jackie Ellis and Jenna Sisto, and 2nd doubles players Sofia Gorsd and Jaelen Chuang swept their competition and picked up the historic win for Wayne Valley. With a 7-0 record, this might be the best start for tennis that this team has had in over 20 years. Both the Varsity and JV teams are currently 9-1, with the only loss for Varsity being an extremely close 2-3 loss to Wayne Hills, which was the second time the two teams faced each other this season. While JV’s only loss this season was against Verona, a very competitive tennis team. With only one loss so far, it can easily be seen just how good of a season the Girls Tennis Team is having this year, compared to last year’s record of 8-7. 

The returning Wayne Valley Seniors, including Nicole Giardino, Maura Hegarty, Celine Omar, Salam Haroun, participated in a Senior Night, hosted by the team’s Booster Club. The team covered the tennis fence with posters, and celebrated the hardworking seniors. With a match against West Milford, Maura and myself played a 3 set match at first doubles, and Celine and Salam played a 2 set match at second doubles, and the team was able to pick up a 5-0 win. The night was filled with fun matches and support from family and friends, which made the night unforgettable. 

Even though the County Tournament for Varsity has been cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, the NJSIAA States tournament is now underway. With Wayne Valley Girls Tennis being ranked as the #4 Seed in the tournament, the team is ready for the intense competition they will face. After the tournament, the team has two more away matches left to go, one against Lakeland and the other against Fair Lawn. Even with the new restrictions encountered this year, the team has enjoyed a new level of success, which it hasn’t seen in many years.