By Megan Kelley
Review Writer
ORION TWP. — Lake Orion High School’s varsity girls tennis team kicked off their season last week with a 6-2 win over the Oxford Wildcats.
The Dragons swept all four singles matches and secured wins in the three and four doubles matchups.
No. 1 singles Jimena Ochoa and no. 2 singles Sherly Shah each won their matches in two sets, 6-1 and 6-0.
No. 3 singles and captain Madison Mernell defeated her Wildcat opponent in three sets; 4-6, 7-5 and 11-9.
No. 4 singles, and another captain for the Dragons, Elena Olejnik won in two sets, both 6-2.
As for the doubles teams, the no. 3 doubles team of Lucy Darnell and Alexa Christensen won in two sets, 6-4 and 6-3, while the no. 4 doubles team of Paige Weid and Meghan Marlette won in three sets; 6-4, 4-6 and 10-5.
The Dragons are now 1-0 overall.
Last year, the team did well, going 11-2 in overall play, placing second in the Oakland Activities Association White division and taking third place in the regional tournament.
The girls are looking forward to their OAA White league matches this season. In last year’s league, the ladies finished just shy of the Clarkston Wolves, who have since moved up to the Red division, bumping the Stoney Creek Cougars down to the White, the second highest division.
“Hopefully we’ll be competitive with all the teams in our league but it’s certainly tough. There are a lot of good schools in the White and Red divisions,” Lake Orion head coach Eric Bracciano said.
The White division includes Rochester, Stoney Creek, Berkley and North Farmington high schools.
The goal this year, as is generally the team goal each season, is to play well in the league and in regionals and hopefully make up for the loss of three all-state players from last season.
“We’re taking this one match at a time. With losing those top players last year, we have some big shoes to fill but we’re going to do the best we can,” said Bracciano.
This year the Lake Orion team is relatively young with only four seniors out of the 14 players. Despite this, the team is hopeful for the rest of the season, considering many of the girls have put in a lot of time and hard work throughout the year, Bracciano said.
“They’ve worked hard in the off season so hopefully that will transition to their outdoor play. With tennis, their off season is 10 months and their season is only two so it really favors the teams that do a lot of indoor training,” said Bracciano.
The ladies head to Athens High School on Thursday to take on the Red Hawks in their second match of the season.