Coach Elisabeth Foukal said she has seven returning players ? and talent to spare on the junior varsity squad ? pushing for starting slots on the Marblehead High boys? tennis team.
This spring?s senior captains are Griffin Butterfield, Corey Stein, Michael Forte, and Dimitri Vlassov.
?We lost a couple of good players from last year?s team, but we have some good players coming up from the JVs, and we have some good freshmen coming out, too,” said Butterfield.
?Dimitri (Vlassov) will be at first singles this year, and I will be playing doubles, we’ve been playing together on the team since freshman year, so we?re excited for a good season,” Butterfield added. “Michael Forte and I have been playing doubles for three years, so we want to have some success this year, we definitely do not want to lose any conference matches this year.”
Last year?s team finished 15-6, losing to Reading in the first round of the Division 2 North tournament.
?We?re looking forward to a challenging season, playing many good schools within the Northeastern Conference ? Swampscott, Danvers, Beverly ? and also out-of-conference schools,” Foukal said. “We try to play the toughest schools who will play us within the season, these include St. John?s Prep, Masconomet, Manchester-Essex, Andover, BC High, Pentucket and Latin Academy.”
Stein, who plays doubles, said that with so many good players coming back, Marblehead will be very competitive this season.
?I?ve been going up to Bass River (the tennis club in Beverly) for clinics, to work on my game for this year, there?s a lot of great players returning for us, we have a very, very strong first seven,” Stein said. “We didn?t finish the way we wanted to last year, obviously, so we hope to get to the tournament again with better results.”
The Magicians are scheduled to open the season with matches on three straight days next week: Monday, April 6 at Winthrop, April 7 at Andover, and April 8 at home against Gloucester.Scot Cooper can be reached at [email protected].