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Freshmen duo leads GHS varsity tennis
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Photo by Kerensa Uyeta-Buckley
The Galt High School tennis program had its first scrimmage against Elk Grove last week.
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By Kerensa Uyeta-Buckley
Herald Sports
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Having started last season as freshmen on the Galt High School varsity girls tennis team, Christina Phillips and Jana Hackett have moved up one more level to lead the varsity Lady Warriors in the singles division this season.
Phillips will start the season as head coach Suzanne Stebbins’ number one singles player, while Hackett will be at number two for Galt.
Stebbins is still figuring out who else will make the cut before the Sierra Valley Conference season starts September 18, but says that her varsity roster will have all returning players.
“We’ll see how it goes. I have 27 girls right now, so that’s very difficult to work with 27 girls,” Stebbins said Thursday during the Lady Warriors’ first scrimmage at home against Elk Grove.
One area Stebbins is currently rebuilding are the doubles teams.
Stebbins lost one senior out of each doubles team, as well as her one, two and three singles players from last year.
She is trying to figure out which girls will play well together and will form doubles teams as a result of that analysis.
“If one player has a good serve, you want to put them with someone who is really good at the net,” Stebbins said.
Having lost six of her 12 players from last year, Stebbins knows that this will be a transition year for the Lady Warriors.
Still, she recognizes talent in both new and returning players.
“I have a lot of freshmen that show a lot of potential and it’s hard to cut freshmen, so I’m going to give it another week,” said Stebbins on making final cuts.
Thursday, Galt dealt with both injury and sickness under the hot sun against Elk Grove, whom it has had little trouble defeating in the past.
“The number four singles player had to forfeit due to a hurt arm and we’re trying to get that healed,” Stebbins said, noting that Galt was ahead in that match.
Galt’s number six singles player had heat exhaustion and slowed down late in the match after being ahead of her Elk Grove opponent, Stebbins said.
While it may be a transition year, Galt is hoping to start the season out strong against Union Mine and to maybe reach the playoffs once again, after reaching the postseason last year.
“It’s a building year. I have a lot of young talent, so we’re just trying to figure things out,” Stebbins said.
Galt will play its first home match September 25 against Cordova High School.
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