This spring, the Kingswood Oxford girls varsity tennis team is ready to take on the new season.
They start the season with some extra confidence from their strong performance in the playoffs last season, placing second in Class B. This season, the team is motivated and back better than ever. They kicked off their season with a great win, 4-3, against Williston Northampton School on March 28. Following a 5-2 loss to Pomfret on April 4, the girls varsity tennis team won three matches in a row against Worcester Academy on April 8 with a final score of 9-0, a 7-2 win over Kent School on April 11, and a 6-3 win over Choate Rosemary Hall on April 15.
Entering the 2026 season, four new players tried out for the team, including one freshman, one sophomore, and two Middle Schoolers. The team welcomed all four members, excited to jump into the season. Going into tryouts, junior Marin Backer shared things they were focusing on. “We definitely wanted to focus on our team building, and making sure that we were playing as a whole team, even though tennis is obviously an individual sport,” she said. “We wanted to make sure that we were acting as a team and that we could support each other to the best of our abilities.”
The tennis team eagerly welcomed the new members and started to foster an inviting and positive team culture. Head Coach Ron Garcia highlighted a challenge that arose at the beginning of the season after graduating a senior last season. “We had to move people up and bring in some new people,” he shared. “So, getting them ready was the first thing that we had to do, and also getting the players to get to know each other and connect.”
This season, the team is invested in building team culture and fostering leadership. With a range of players across different age groups, the team is encouraging teammates to hit together during free periods or before school to strengthen relationships. Additionally, bringing energy to every practice and match is a main focus of the team. The team is grateful to have freshman Elena Rivera as their manager, as she brings light and positivity to their team and is dedicated to helping whenever needed.
Leadership is essential to every team, and is a task not only assigned to captains. The other members of the team have stepped up and shown a great sense of leadership and support, always cheering and uplifting teammates.
The team implemented a few changes in practices to strive for more success throughout the season. Backer shared the main change from last season to this season. “Last year, we did just drill work, but this year, at least in the beginning of the year, we’re really trying to strengthen our doubles teams,” she stated. “So we’ve been doing a lot of work in practice on just playing doubles, playing sets. Different drills that will help with doubles. But right now, we’re really working on being able to execute in doubles and singles.”
Additionally, junior Captain Noor Sayej explained how she has worked with Coach Garcia this season to help plan practices, providing helpful feedback for the coaches. Sayej commented on the positive impact this change has brought to the team. “Through working closely with Coach Garcia this year to create practice plans and different drills that are based on what we need to improve on,” she said, “I think that this has really been helping us so far. The amount of improvement we’ve made from the first match to the second is already big.”
Going into the season, the team has a very clear goal of finishing what they started last season and coming back to win Class B. The team is very excited and looking forward to the playoffs. The team’s grit and determination coming off the loss last season is something that separates them from other teams in their class.
Coach Garcia added that the playoff is something that he is really looking forward to, “I’m very excited for that tournament, we have some players who are really good athletes, and who improve fast,” he said. “We have those young players who are a bit more inexperienced, but they’re very good, so the next step is to see how prepared we can get them in a month, before entering the playoffs.”
The team has made changes and set goals to succeed this spring. The girls varsity tennis team will head off to Cheshire Academy on April 25. Best of luck for the rest of their season, and watch out, whoever has to face them!
