With a significant number of freshmen and sophomores in its lineup, the future is bright for Greenwich Academy’s tennis team. The present is also sparkling with a group of upperclassmen igniting the team to an absolutely perfect start to its season.

Through 10 matches, Greenwich Academy has reached a perfect 10 – posting a record of 10-0, its latest victory coming Friday against FAA rival Sacred Heart Greenwich.

Host GA won each match in straight sets in its impressive 7-0 victory over the visiting Tigers.

“The girls are amazing, we have six freshmen on the team, but they are a jelled happy-go-lucky team and they have played extremely well,” Greenwich Academy coach Elizabeth Schrohe said. “We have a very deep singles lineup, with good competitors.”

Receiving the start at the No. 1 singles spot Friday for the Gators was sophomore Grace Genereux. At the top singles spot, Genereux registered a 6-3, 6-3 win against Sacred Heart junior Isobel Costello in a well-played match.

“It’s been good, at the beginning of the season I was rusty, but I have definitely gotten better with match experience,” Genereux said. “I’ve been serving it better and have gotten better overall.”

Genereux embraces her challenging role as a singles player.

“I like playing singles, each match you get a variety of players – a different type of player each time,” she said. “We have a lot of good singles players and a lot of good freshmen which has helped. We have a really good team.”

Friday, Genereux was in impressive form, placing a lot of her shots in tough spots.

“I served pretty well throughout,” Genereux said. “I was consistent, I tried to stay aggressive and do well off short balls.”

Costello has made the move from No. 2 singles from last season to No. 1 this spring and has performed well for the Tigers.

“This is my first season playing at No. 1 and it’s going pretty well,” Costello said. “Every match I’m trying to make shots. Playing different players, it’s a really good experience. It is a chance to grow and play good players.”

“I hope to become more consistent, keep improving my serve and just making sure and I’m treating every loss as a possibility to learn more things,” Costello continued.

Lily Martucci, a senior, registered a 6-0, 6-0 victory at second singles for GA against senior Mary Hawthorn. Martucci has also seen plenty of action at the first singles position for the Gators this spring.

“We have a really strong team, we have a lot of new players, we have four freshmen on the team, which is the most freshmen we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Martucci said. “We have a strong singles lineup and our doubles is getting stronger by the day.”

Martucci has help inspire the Gators squad since her freshman season.

“It’s bittersweet since it’s my last season,” she said. “I’ve been on the team since my freshman year, so tennis is life sport, so I’ll always be able to play it.”

Charlotte Pastel, a freshman, was Greenwich Academy’s first player to be finished with her match on Friday. Pastel was a 6-0, 6-0 winner against Frankie Marangi of the Tigers at third singles.

“This is my first year on the team and I’ve really enjoyed it so far, we’ve had a lot of great competition,” Pastel said. “All the upper classmen are super nice, everyone is super welcoming and there’s a great mix of competitiveness and we’re such a great team together as well.”

Using her consistent forehand, Pastel was able to dicate plenty of the points in her No. 3 singles match.

Fourth singles saw Greenwich Academy freshman Elsa Burgess notch a 6-4, 6-3 win over Moira Marangi. In doubles play, the senior tandem of Kate Boer and Sarah Powis of GA topped Sacred Heart senior Isabel Lehrman and junior Catherine Dodman, 6-4, 6-3, in a match featuring several long rallies.

This season marks Boer and Powis’ first one as a doubles team.

“I have loved playing with Sarah, we’re both also undefeated as a team, which is really exciting,” Boer said. “I think we’ve worked on strategy a lot in practice, hand signals, practicing our plays and being really aggressive at the net. “We’ve grown a lot and we’ve become more aggressive at the net.”

Said Powis: “We started out a little bit slow, but towards the end of the first set we were able to start focusing more on being aggressive at the net, using the alleys and focusing on consistency. And we were able to figure out what we needed to work on more and that helped us in the second set and ultimately, win the match. I think it was a really good match today and our opponents were really strong.”

The duo especially enjoy the teamwork doubles play entails.

“I love playing doubles,” Boer noted. “It’s nice having someone else on the court. You hold yourself and each other accountable, which is great.”

Lehrman and Dodman have showed significant improvement throughout the season, as they have led the Tigers at the first doubles spot in the lineup. In Friday’s match, the exhibited stellar teamwork.

“Overall, it was a good match,” Lehrman said. “We got a lot of our first serves in. We could have hit less down the line and more cross court to set up overheads and put away the point, but overall, I think it was a good match.”

Said Dodman: “We had good serves and we definitely put up a good fight. We have had a very good start for the team, we’ve definitely played some hard matches, but the whole team has put up a good fight.”

At No. 2 doubles, GA freshmen Emily Sherman and Isa Packard teamed up for a 6-3, 6-4 triumph against senior Kaitlyn Langer and sophomore Sia Goyal. In the No. 3 doubles match, senior Margaret Foley and sophomore Juliet Winegardner won in straight sets against Sacred Heart’s Michaela White and Ellie Furman.

Sacred Heart (4-2) is in action again on May 3 at FAA foe St. Luke’s School.

“It was a tough match today,” Sacred Heart coach Ed Metzendorf said. “They won the big points when they needed to. The girls battled hard, but kudos to GA, they were better than us today. We’ve had some good wins and we are trying to get better every day and working hard and looking to improve.”

“Overall, we are playing our best and having fun,” Lehrman said. “We’re definitely excited for the the FAA championships and the good matches we have coming up.”

Greenwich Academy hopes to keep its perfect record intact when it hosts Taft School on May 3.

“We’re working on doubles and everyone getting better in doubles, because we’re going to have to play doubles when we play the boarding schools,” Genereux said.

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