The Dalles girls netters continue improvement

“Overall, I knew this would be a rebuilding year,” said Jones. “Even though we have not won a team match I am very pleasantly surprised that we are as competitive as we’ve been. We haven’t been blanked in any of our matches and we wanted to keep that going. Win at least one match in the overall team score.”

Heading into last month’s match against HRV, Jones challenged her team to focus on something that would ultimately help them win more points going forward.

“We’ve lost a lot of points off what we call ‘first strike balls,’” she said. “That could be serves or serve returns. If we can’t get the ball in the court during our first strike opportunity it automatically puts us in a hole. With that said, improving our first serve percentage is key.”

HRV won six of eight matches during the contest but the effort and determination was there for the Riverhawks. Number one singles player Hannah Biehn and the No. 4 doubles team of Maia Thomas and Giselle Ortega came away with their first victories in impressive fashion. Biehn, a senior and undisputed leader of the Riverhawks, got in a groove early, striking the ball with precision and confidence as she went on to defeat HRV’s Cassandra Moreno, 6-2, 6-2.

After winning the first set routinely, the second set became a little dicey for Thomas and Ortega, as they found themselves in a 4-2 hole in the second. The pair won the next four games, completing the comeback to take the match 6-3, 6-4.

Jones has high standards for her team. “To be honest I am seeing more progress during practice,” she said. “The effort and enthusiasm are definitely there. We are struggling a bit to translate that into match situations. That is the mental part of the sport. We’ve been working on that part most recently. In comparing match and practice play we’ve discovered that our stress response is really triggered during match play. We are working on being able to regulate that stress and turn it into an asset instead of a negative. Playing matches is the best way to work on that.”

Jones said a lot of her tennis players are participating in their first high school sport. “Learning to deal with losses and not judge effort and the score on the same level has been important,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of team circle chats where we’ve asked team members individually to talk about their effort as compared to results.

“We then talk about what went well and what the player feels they need to work on in order to be more prepared for the next match. Because of our youth we need to build that resiliency within our players so that they are able to bounce back from losses. Every match is a learning opportunity, and the hard work will pay off if we are patient enough.”