With the new season barely starting, the tennis team has struggled against facing their new opponents in their athletic district. Although the matches haven’t been in their favor, the team has players with great skill.

“Our team has changed tremendously from last year,” varsity co-captain senior Michael Mendonca said. “We have gained some really good players and started playing smart.”

Even after losing the last three matches, tennis coach Deana Johnson believes the team will succeed by helping lowerclassmen gain strength on the court.

“We have great leaders on the team representing not only our LHS tennis team, but our school,” Johnson said. “Our upperclassmen really take their younger teammates and those new to the team under their wing.”

Members of the team have tremendously improved from the past year after putting in time practicing.

“Several of our players played quite a bit of tennis over the summer and it shows,” Johnson said. “All of our players started the season with large energy and their determination keeps getting stronger as the season progresses.”

With a match coming up next Tuesday against Irving, varsity co-captain senior Virginia Ramirez hopes to improve on flaws during the matches.

“Some of the weaknesses the team is facing besides the heat is consistency,” Ramirez said. “When we are playing a match we have great rallies but then we are usually the first to make the mistake and miss a good point. So [we’re always] doing drills working on consistency and placement of the ball to improve muscle memory and durability.”

The tennis players plan to learn to not let pressure or nervousness affect their performance during the games.

“In the most critical points we tend to let our nerves get the best of us,” Johnson said.