Girls' Tennis Double Threat: Belmont Pair Advance to Sectional Quarterfinal

Decisions, decisions. For seniors Juliet Barker and Choa Kim, this week is about one thing: Senior Prom; getting the right dress, the perfect shoes, the latest hair style and on and on to make this big night on the calendar memorable.

But then bright and early Saturday, May 20, the pair will have to decide on serving, poaching and when to attack the net as Barker and Kim will be playing in the quarterfinals of the North Sections in the MIAA Individual Girls Tennis Tournament.

Girls' varsity coach Eileen White said the pair, who have a 10-1 record so far this season, has gone farther then any singles or doubles team from Belmont for as long as anyone can remember.

The team advanced to the third round of the Tournament with a straight sets win at Newton South High School on Sunday, May 13. They are the final Marauders still in the tournament, a playoffs where six girls compete in the individual tournament over the weekend. 

Both Alice Cui and Hannah Harris won their first round matches but were knocked out in the second round in singles play. The senior doubles team of Julia Barry and Aleek Artinian lost a tough first round match to some aggressive competitors, said White.

Saturday's match will not be the first time Barker has come to play with a lot on the line; Juliet was a Middlesex League second team All Star in Field Hockey that outplayed and nearly toppled perennial state champions Watertown High School in the North Div. 2 Finals in the fall. 

Kim and Barker's performance is emblematic for the team which is 9-3, second in the Middlesex League Big School Division despite losing a great deal of practice time to bad weather. Two of the three losses have been to undefeated teams and a pair of the defeats were by a single game.