On March 29, Linganore boys’ varsity tennis took on Oakdale High School at Oakdale where they lost 5-0. Although this was a disappointing loss, it’s clear that this game was just a part of the team’s progress towards future victories.

Improving from the previous year, the Linganore team seems to be on a rise. Multiple coaches and players agree that there is not only a rise in skill level but talented new players who are contributing to the overall team.

“I am very excited for the future of this season as we have improved greatly since last year,” Linganore sophomore doubles player Todd Johnson said.

Despite the loss, players developed a positive mindset to use their loss and the match’s events to practice their skills and continue their rise against future competitors.

Linganore will face some tough competitors this season. Oakdale is one of those tough competitors, along with other opponents such as Urbana and  Frederick High Schools. 

The team is currently practicing new strategies and working to strengthen the doubles teams. Overall, they are striving to improve techniques against players that are better than the ones who they will be playing against. 

Linganore senior and doubles captain Brady Vlha elaborates.

“We were trying to use a similar strategy that worked for us in our last match: kinda keep the ball high and over the net players,” Vhla said. “It didn’t really work out a lot because they were really tall, but it was a good eye-opener about some things that we have to work on [and how we should be] implementing different strategies on different opponents.”

The boys seem confident in their ability to beat Thomas Johnson at their next match as every high school team in the district is played twice. 

The varsity team will be playing multiple matches in one week. This fast-paced schedule also leaves little time to fixate on their loss to Oakdale; they have to prepare themselves to move forward as they take on better and more fairly-matched opponents. 

Linganore boys varsity tennis coach Joseph Hawkins reflected on the upcoming match. 

“TJ is much more on our level, and I was able to talk to the team yesterday about how we can use what we learned from Oakdale as sort of practice for what we are doing today against TJ,” Hawkins said. 

With  more practice, player development and a positive, winning attitude, Linganore boys’ varsity tennis team will hopefully see more victorious days ahead.