With fall sports winding down, the Crusaders left their mark in many competitions over Halloween weekend.
The Cardinal Gibbons girls tennis team left an impressionable mark though, sweeping the dual-team championship against Page by a 5-0 score at the Burlington Tennis Center.
Last year Cardinal Gibbons was the runner-up. However, this year has added another championship to the Athletics Department’s impressive repertoire.
Girls tennis now has four championships, although this is their first since 2014.
Earlier this October, the Cardinal Gibbons team earned another victory in their season by winning the doubles championship. The duo of junior Isabelle Lu and senior Lilly Heiden brought home the 7A title with a commanding 6-1, 6-1 win over Marvin Ridge. Their victory marks Gibbons’ seventh individual champions title, and the first of this kind since 2017.
Despite the successes, the team has faced its own challenges along the way.
In the beginning of the long season, coach Andrew Tuttle had experienced concern due to all the seniors leaving the team. With a total of eight seniors graduating, half the team had gone “poof” in such a short period of time.
“Losing that many players, there’s a lot of turnover,” Tuttle said, conveying his anxiety for this upcoming season. “You never quite know if you’ll be at the same level as you were the year before.”
Despite this drawback, players of the younger level had to step up into the lineup and grow fast in such a short period of time.
With eight upperclassmen leaving, the majority of the team and starting lineup are underclassmen. The starting lineup has three sophomores, one freshman, two juniors, and one senior.
In a sport where varsity teams are dominated by upperclassmen, having such a young lineup is unusual.
The perks of having upperclassmen go beyond their experience on the court. They also bring a willingness to open up and communicate.
“So at the start of the season, we were looking for leaders to emerge because we had a lot of big personalities last year, a lot of talkative seniors,” Tuttle explained. He expressed gratitude for those previous seniors, noting that they not only passed down their skills, but also helped the younger players learn how to connect as a team.
This year’s seniors carried on the tradition, displaying leadership qualities.
“The two seniors that we did have, Lilly Heiden and Abigail Sevene, both stepped up as really good leaders, setting the example for how players should carry themselves, how hard they should work, and sportsmanship they should have.” Tuttle said. Beyond the racking of tennis balls and friendly competition within the team, Tuttle has goals of a cohesive and well-rounded team, involving the team in spiritual life and service, and going on team retreats.
“We’re very successful at tennis, but we don’t want that to be all we’re about,” Tuttle noted, highlighting that the program values personal growth and meaningful relationships as much as the program’s success.
Cardinal Gibbons’ girls tennis team faced a season of major changes with moving from 4A to 7A and half the roster disappearing almost overnight. Despite these challenges, the players rose to the occasion. This season’s team not only dealt with the loss of key players and a divisional change but also fought hard to claim the championship, proving their resilience and determination.
