By NYLA JAFRI

This season, Redlands East Valley’s girls tennis showed how to smash their opponents. The team played their last game away against Cajon High School on October 19 and concluded with a victory of 14-4. A successful season, with only a total of four loses in total, lead them to be able to move on to the CBL and CIF tournaments.

Throughout all the matches this year, many onlookers watched with awe at how well REV’s team used teamwork and strategy to defeat their opponents. However, the truly awe-inspiring part of the team was their spirit.

“The team shows much potential, eagerness to learn and a desire to win. They also appreciate the fun side of tennis where you are with a group of people that understand you. They also also know how to appreciate the game that mentally challenges you,” Coach Ed Stark explained at the beginning of the year.

The team’s captains Hannah Washburn and Natalie Zander also provided input about the team earlier in the year.

“When we see the team, it is obvious that we want to make the each other proud. This lets us work hard and creates great community support. One of our goals is to be happy and improve our performance this season” said Washburn.

Zander also added that “the team really enjoys tennis for many reasons but we can all agree that we enjoy the challenges that come from tennis, they are never the same thing twice. How we enjoy just motivates us to reach our goal to go to playoffs this year. I believe that with this team, we can really achieve this goal.”

And complete this goal they did. Zander and Washburn played in the CIF Individual Tournament on Nov. 20.

“It was relieving to have our final day playing tennis on the 20th, but it was also sad because it was our last time playing together as a competitive doubles team,” Washburn said.

While the duo’s championship career was short-lived, it was not without a good effort. “As hard as we fought, the results weren’t what we wanted. We lost in our first round to a high-ranked team,” Washburn continued. “I will miss playing with Natalie very much because we’ve played for two years together and I can’t imagine stepping on the court without playing another set with her. She’s one of my best friends.”

Many other team members also showed pride and excitement for the next year like Treasure Jackson and Mimi Contreras.

As a team, REV finished the 2017-18 season as second place in their division.