With the (almost) newly redone tennis courts, the Panthers are coming out swinging.

Bonnie Zimmerman, veteran girls’ tennis coach for six years now, hopes to lead the team this season to back-to-back wins in the NJIC Colonial Division. The Panthers this year are led by captains Katie Monahan and Diana Editoiu who “have proved to be good leaders for the team,” according to Coach Zimmerman.

The Panthers have had a strong start to their season with a seven and one record in their first eight matches played. With high expectations for her student athletes this season, Zimmerman said, “[I] expect them to play hard, focus on each point, and to never give up.”

Although there are difficult matches coming up on the team’s schedule (such as Rutherford High School), Coach Zimmerman is confident with her team. Zimmerman’s approach for this match-up and the upcoming BCWCA tournament at the end of September is that her team should, “Practice being consistent and playing with a strategy to set up points.  Most important would be to reduce unforced errors”.

For their first tournament of the season, the Panthers expect to have a “strong showing”. Last year, Alex Mircea, currently a junior, was a semi-finalist in the tournament for first singles and Diana Editoiu, now a senior, was also a semi-finalist in second singles. Apart from the County tournament, the team is looking forward to the state tournament and hopes to be (at least) semi-finalists there as well.

Haley Rosenwald, sophomore and two-year varsity player, is optimistic for a winning season. “The team gets along really well!” she said, “Last year they welcomed me with open arms and we continue to do so this year for new varsity players. We have a lot of fun, but we play seriously once we get on the court.”

Although losing many experienced seniors from last year, Coach Zimmerman has her eyes set to the upperclassmen to take charge on the court. “We still have our first and second singles duo of Alex Mircea and Diana Editoiu, who both had great results last year.”

Hopefully finishing up sooner than later, the newly refurbished tennis courts are one of the last new editions to Glen Rock High School. “It will be tremendous for the tennis teams…” said Zimmerman, “We can finally hold state matches at home, since all schools must have 5 courts to host a state match.  We’ve been unable to host matches at the HS and we’ve been the higher seed.”

Although the new tennis courts will be available for public use, Coach Zimmerman, as a tennis enthusiast, hopes that “the courts are used for tennis only and treated with respect — not as a skateboarding area, a dog park or for bike rides.”

The athletes on the tennis team are also excited and anxious to play on the new tennis courts.

“I feel the new courts are an amazing contribution to the tennis teams,” says Rosenwald. Reflecting back onto the old, tattered courts, she added, “The cracks on the old courts were bothersome… Not having those anymore will definitely make our playing safer and more successful”.

Regardless of what happens this season, Coach Zimmerman concluded, “If I can look back at what happens at a match or practice and feel that my team has worked hard, have improved in some way, then it’s a successful day.”