By Maiya Tomlin
Sometimes, stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to exciting new opportunities. For sophomores Cameron Kauffman and Zarin Sapra, that meant picking up tennis. With not a lot of prior experience, they decided to give the sport a try last fall and challenged themselves to try out for Lovett’s tennis team this past January.
After 3 laborious days of tryouts, both were “pleasantly surprised” when they made Lovett’s JV team. I asked Zarin why she decided to try out. She said she wants to get better at tennis, especially because “it’s kind of a lifelong sport. Like I feel like you can play it when you’re older.” She also “wanted to be more active in the spring and have something to do.”
The Lovett Girls JV tennis team has 13 girls this year, which is above the average of 8-10, and their coach is Lynn King, who is the middle school band teacher if you’ve seen her around.
Before tryouts, Zarin told me she prepared by hitting with a drill group a few times a week. As for Cameron, she has been doing private lessons with a coach at least once a week. They told me they hit together a lot.
The Lovett Girl’s JV team has had 2 weeks of practice every other day since tryouts. During these days of practices, Zarin told me, “The coaches have already taught me a lot, things I wouldn’t have known if I did regular drills.”
Cameron has enjoyed partnering up with other players. “Over the past few practices, I discovered I lowkey love playing doubles,” she said.
The team’s first match was scheduled for Tuesday, February 11th, however, it was canceled due to rain. “I’m feeling a little nervous because I’ve never played a match before,” Cameron said. Zarin agreed. She’s excited to play a match,” especially if I’m playing doubles.” As you might expect, Cameron agreed.
Over their few weeks of practice, I asked them what their favorite part has been so far. Cameron told me that the team dynamic is really fun and that they’ve already created a group chat. “The most fun part though has been making new friends. I really like the freshmen, especially Lauren Dean and Lily Bosworth,” Cameron said.
Zarin has enjoyed the social and physical aspects of being on the team, “having fun while hanging out with your friends but also getting better and being active at the same time.” She added, “When I get to hit with like Lane (Rodts), Cameron, and Kennedy (Crane) like you’re talking and hitting a ball, but you’re still getting better.”
Speaking of sophomore Lane Rodts, she came to Lovett this fall from Holy Innocents, where she used to play tennis. Technically, trying out for a tennis team was not a new experience for her, however trying out for the Lovett tennis team was.
I asked Lane how this year is different from playing at Holy Innocents. “HIES didn’t have a media day, so that was fun to get to do,” she said. She also told me that tryouts at HIES are similar to Lovett’s. Zarin told me during tryouts they “played short games against other people, and played doubles matches to show that they could do both.”
Lane also told me that “trying out for Lovett tennis is a great opportunity to make new friends.” She told me she walked into tryouts with 2 people from her grade (which were Zarin and Cameron) but she’s gotten to know freshmen and even a few eighth graders over the last couple of weeks.
“I usually play doubles,” Lane told me. She has never competitively played singles. “I don’t necessarily prefer one over the other, I just have never truly played singles before.”
Lane also played softball at Holy Innocents and was on the Lovett Varsity team last fall, which she told me was fun but added “Tennis has always been my main sport.” She described it as having a different kind of team environment.
Zarin unfortunately missed Friday’s match due to her ski trip to Aspen (which I’m jealous of), but I decided to have a post-game interview with Cameron and Lane after their first match,
against Wesleyan. “It was super fun,” Lane said, “especially because everyone played well, and we ended up winning!” Cameron enjoyed “getting to bond with the other girls,” she told me.
With their first win under their belts, the Lovett Girls JV tennis team is off to a great start. Take Zarin, Cameron, and Lane’s advice, step out of your comfort zone, and try a new activity. Perhaps you’ll make some unexpected friendships.
