Minooka’s varsity girls tennis team won 7-0 against Joliet Township, keeping them one of the strongest teams in the conference.

On Sept. 16, Minooka faced Joliet Township at the Joliet West courts.

“Taking care of business against teams that you should beat is important for conference seeding and sectional seeding which is right around the corner,” head coach Robert Munson said.

Minooka tennis always has strong competition. They showed up ready to play against Joliet Township, sweeping them and adding a win to their record.

“I expected us to do very well against Joliet and was hoping for a sweep against them,” Munson said. “Moving our feet, placement over power, teamwork, and the addition of Coach Thelo have made us a very competitive team.”

In addition, first singles for Minooka’s Max Philips-Mantia came onto the courts ready to go, and defeated their opponent. 

“I feel I did well learning her as a player,” Philips-Mantia said. “I think I did well accelerating my hits against a pusher to really hit lighter.”

Philips-Mantia  saw how Joliet was playing and made hitting adjustments.

“I feel like I’m definitely more of a hard hitter in most aspects. But with her I felt like I was hitting lighter, just due to the circumstances of what kind of player she is,” Philips-Mantia said. 

Philips-Mantia learned their opponent’s style of play and quickly knew what they had to do to beat her. Instead of playing down to her opponents level, they stayed out of their head and finished the match with a win. 

“Every single person won. I didn’t feel like there was no competition at all, but their team’s communication compared to ours, it was a really drastic difference, so that helped us,” sophomore Evelyn Cawthorne said.

Cawthorne and her doubles partner, Brianna Espinoza, communicated well the whole game. They had to work together to secure their win and they knew where to be positioned on the court the whole time because of how well they talked with each other.

“I was proud of the win because Bri and I stayed up in both sets and we played our best against our competition,” Cawthorne said.

Malayna Martinez is a member of the girls tennis team.