By: Zulaykha Ganatra
As the new school year starts, our tennis team here at Austin starts their season. The Dawgs are ready for an amazing season and hopefully going to the playoffs. They have gone to the playoffs for the past several years now and their goal is to get there again and hopefully win the championship too.
There are many promising players this year. Many seniors, juniors and sophomores are returning to the courts and some new freshmen are joining them on it too this year. Both the boys and the girls’ team are ready and determined to make it to the playoffs. This season seems very promising for our Dawgs.
“It’s promising, we have a really good group of seniors, and we also had a good crop of freshmen girls come in,” said coach Moore, tennis head coach.
The future for the team this season seems very bright, with hopefully an eventful season up ahead.
“It should be the best team we’ve had in a couple years,” Moore said. “But you have to go out a prove it on the court.”
The Dawgs are led by senior captains Said Bennaji and Rajan Parikh. Both have had past success. Last season Bennaji teamed with sophomore star Ethan Thrower to win district in doubles. And as a freshman, Parikh shocked the district by going to regionals in boyssingles. The Dawgs are looking to those two for leadership for the team and the newcomers.
“The freshmen boys were okay but not on par with the freshmen girls this year. Kind of goes in waves,” Moore said.
Junior Nina Gerlovich leads the girls team. The Dawgs added two solid freshmen this year too, in Leena Parikh and Aila Shoukry.
The standard here at Austin is high, Moore is quite confident that the tennis team will make it to the playoffs.
“That’s our goal, that’s our standard here. We’ve made it every time, every year, except for one,” he said.
