Tennis Team Shows Promise

Whoever said that being a tennis coach was easy? After a two game losing streak, with her team standing at a two win, two loss crossroads prior to an important match against Westfield, Centreville’s girls Coach Leslie O’Connor  had to cope with a meddlesome violin and a mischievous little dog, so small that it’s owner barely noticed it sitting on the couch.

O’Connor’s number one player, Jackie Lin, was unavailable for the match due to a violin lesson, and her number two player, Cheryl Mazmanian, injured her thumb in a mishap with her dog.

“She was about to sit down, and then noticed he was there, and in order to avoid sitting on him, she sort of stuck her hand out and injured her thumb,” O’Connor said.

Without her two best players, O’Connor gambled and, rather than move all the other players up two slots and have them face a higher level of competition than they were used to, she brought in two players who aren’t normally in the starting singles lineup—sophomore Jamie Schoshinski, and junior Alison Dyer—and placed them in the 1 and 2 singles slots, while keeping everyone else in their normal spot. The gambit paid off, as Schoshinski and Dyer lost, but five others won, in a 5-4 thriller.

“If you have a really deep team you can move everyone up but we knew that Westfield was very competitive, so we opted to keep our original lineup and sub in for those that could not play,” O’Connor said.  “Next year we’ll lose numbers 2-6 to graduation, so they’re the ones who will step up. So it was good experience for them." 

It’s been that kind of season thus far for Centreville (4-2), generally successful, but never boring. The team suffered two tough 8-1 losses, to Oakton and Robinson, the two toughest teams in the district, but has also enjoyed twice as many impressive wins.

In their most recent encounter with Herndon, O’Connor was once again playing without her two top players, and yet the team still prevailed 7-2, as unsung heroes like Allison Dyer, who won her match in the #2 singles position despite the fact that she isn’t normally even in the singles starting lineup, came through with big wins. 

The team set the tone for the season with two big wins to start the year- an 8-1 thrashing of Herndon, and a 6-3 triumph over Chantilly.

“We’re better off than we were last year, because we lost to Chantilly both times last year and this year we were just a little bit better than them,” O’Connor said.

Senior Astrid Unson has been a rock for the team, competing hard in every match and bringing home a total of ten wins for her team, five in singles, and five more in doubles, four of them with her outstanding doubles partner, Shauna Kistner, who also has three singles wins.

“Astrid has been great so far. She’s been so consistent, she’s been hitting harder with more topspin, and I think she’s become more mature,” O’Connor said. “And Shauna is a good doubles player, she likes to be up at the net, and she works really well with Astrid.” 

Sarah Nguyen has also been a key contributor with six wins, three in singles and three in doubles, two of them with Cheryl Mazmanian, who also has two singles wins. O’Connor said that Nguyen has improved her mental toughness, allowing her to overcome hurdles that used to derail her.

 Senior Christina Park has three wins for the team, Jackie Lin has two and Allison Dyer has three. The team has shown enough promise in the early going to believe that they can challenge for the district title. But they’ll need to figure out how to compete against Robinson and Oakton first.

“What I'd like to see is for us to beat Chantilly and Weston again, and I think we can beat Robinson, as well,” O’Connor said. “Oakton is tough but we can do better than a 1-8 loss, I know that.”