Although a few things have changed since last year, the Bishop Blanchet JV Tennis started off their spring season strong.

After beating rival Seattle Prep, the team took a loss against Lakeside, leaving them with a 1-1 record. Two games, against Bainbridge and Ballard, were rained out.

For the Braves, the new season has brought a new coaching staff and a different procedure for tryouts for both the JV and Varsity teams. Last year, tennis was “self cut”, and players who felt that they did not meet up with the team’s standards made their own choice to not carry on with the team for the rest of the season. Tryout week previously meant deciding whether players were on varsity or junior varsity, while this year tryouts were a bit more cut-throat, deciding who stayed on the team at all.

“We did challenge matches against each other,” said junior Kiera Dempsey from the JV team about tryouts. “Last year we did cross court matches, but this year we did full court instead.”

Tom Suarez has taken upon the task of coaching the JV team for the first time, and Kerry Loveland, who played for his whole life and competed at a collegiate level at the University of Washington, has taken up the head coaching position for the varsity team.

Overall, the JV squad is looking forward to the rest of their season.

“We’re improving,” said sophomore Jack Robinson, who plays doubles on JV.  “I want to see us improve on communicating in doubles.”

The team’s next match is against West Seattle on April 5th at Upper Woodland.