GA senior number one Emma Menkowitz retreats to the baseline to hit a two-fisted backhand. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Poor weather conditions, either excessive heat or drenching rain, affected the schedules of most fall sports teams in late August and early September, and no sport bore more of the brunt than tennis.

So it was that up until late last week, the girls of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy had not played an Inter-Ac League match. The Blue Devils finally got to open up last Thursday at the Academy of Notre Dame, then the next afternoon they were back home to host Germantown Academy.

Unfortunately for SCH fans, both bouts ended in 7-0 setbacks.

Friday’s match was a homecoming of sorts for new GA head coach Ryan Gargullo, who played tennis for the old Chestnut Hill Academy. He graduated in 1998, along with the twin brothers of current SCH girls’ head coach Ashley Vandegrift.

Going into the contest, GA looked to be the stronger team judging by prior results against common opponents. A week earlier the Patriots had defeated Notre Dame, 5-2, and in non-league losses to Shipley School in the five-tiered Friends School League format, GA fell 2-3 while the Blue Devils succumbed, 0-5.

On the middle singles court, GA junior Tiffany Zhong finished up fairly quickly in the second flight, posting scores of 6-0, 6-1 against SCH senior Leslie King.

Other early wins came from some of the visiting doubles players. Sophomore Haley Marks and junior Sadie Andra faced SCH freshman Cameron Golden and junior Emma Schwenderman at third doubles and won 6-1, 6-4. Schwenderman’s twin, Maya, was teamed up with freshman Lauren Gregson at fourth doubles, and this duo was overcome, 6-4, 6-0, by a Patriot tandem made up of junior Laura Lennon and sophomore Kara McAndrew.

Junior Kellie Graves (left) and senior Leslie King are the team co-captains for SCH tennis this fall. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

Neither school had all of its regular varsity doubles players on hand last Friday, so there were a few alterations on both sides.

In the number three singles match, Germantown Academy sophomore Sarah Rojas recorded a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Blue Devils junior Kellie Graves. Graves is a team co-captain for SCH this fall, along with King.

Back in doubles territory, four juniors were engaged in the second flight. GA’s Alice Su and Amanda Li prevailed, 6-1, 6-2 against the home team’s Betty Li and her partner Meghan Franklin, who transferred over to SCH from Upper Dublin High School.

The last doubles flight off the court was the first, thanks to some stiff resistance in the second set by the Blue Devils’ Emma Schotsch and Julia Barrist. In this all-sophomore set-to, Kendall Salicki and Emily Wang of the Patriots won the first set, 6-1, and eventually prevailed in the second, 7-6 (7-5).

Senior Emma Menkowitz, positioned at first singles, was the last GA athlete on the court. The freshman she was facing, Whitney Taylor, was already Springside Chestnut Hill’s top squash player last winter as an eighth-grader, but she doesn’t play a lot of tennis.

Loyal to her school, she decided to lend her eye-hand coordination and sense of court movement to the tennis squad this fall. With many long points, it wasn’t an easy match for GA’s Menkowitz, but she eventually completed the Patriots’ team sweep, winning 6-2, 7-5.