Last season, the Walpole Boys Tennis team continued a streak of consistency, finishing over .500 and making it to the tournament for their third straight year.  Unfortunately, their season abruptly ended in the tournament a year ago:  a tough 3-2 loss to No. 17 Sandwich cut the No. 16 Rebels’ season short.  But this year, the Boys Tennis team expects nothing less than a tournament birth and hopes to make a longer postseason run.

Since only a few seniors graduated last year and a flow of new players — from freshman to sophomores and even several upperclassmen— have joined the team this year, Boys Tennis has tons of potential talent to utilize for the future and plenty of returning players for this season.  Whether this news translates to more or less wins is unknown as of now; however, Coach Shawn Gough is excited about the prospects for the future. He said, “We have a lot of talent to choose from, and I think we match up pretty well against many of the teams in the league.”

But with no tournament win in this current three season span, the Boys Tennis team is determined to not only make the tournament, but also do well if they make the tournament this year, according to senior Captain Alex Fraser.  Fraser believes this year’s team has the pieces to be successful:  “this year we have strong singles, lots of returning players, and lots of new players joining the team.”  Fraser, noting that this combination of factors leads him to believe this will be another solid season for Boys Tennis, said  “I am definitely expecting a good season this year.”

With the team aiming to improve and get better, Walpole Boys Tennis looks to have a successful season.  Although they have not had the recent tournament success, right now the team and its players are concentrating on getting off to a strong start and continuing to build on the recent interest and success of Rebels Tennis.