Concord’s girls’ tennis team may have lost against Dover in its home opener, 8-1, but for Crimson Tide head coach Greg Malette it was all about the small victories.

The team finished 1-13 the past two seasons, but the program is slowly gaining some traction and Wednesday afternoon was a testament to that. Senior Malia Moffett, Concord’s fourth player in the line-up, won her singles match decisively, 8-1, against Dover’s Izzy Schlosser with consistent rallying and a steady serve. 

“It was super fun and, Dover has a really good reputation within tennis. So we know that they’ve had a lot of wind, so I wasn’t expecting to have a win, but it was really nice to start the season, to do that good,” Moffett said.

Her win was the first time during Malette’s tenure that one of his players had beaten a Green Wave player, and it was a bright spot on the day. 

Concord’s top two players, seniors Sarah Saleem and Madison Mikkelsen, faced difficult competition in their singles matches and both fell. Similarly, junior Ava Todd and freshman Bryn Washburn also lost but got good experience – especially Washburn who competed in her first varsity match as the sixth player for the Tide.

Moffett’s success carried over into her doubles match-up alongside junior Elizabeth LaBombard against Dover’s Kim Tarr and Sienna D’Ambrosio. The Tide girls went down three games early in the match, trailing 5-2, but battled back and found their rhythm to bring it as close as 7-6. Dover won its serve in the last game to close out the 8-6 victory, but the match had everyone’s attention until the very end.

“I think when Dover showed up, they weren’t really expecting a run for their money and I think we definitely gave that to them,” said LaBombard after the match. “The coach seemed pretty surprised by how we were playing this year and I think that we have a really good season ahead of us.”

The other two doubles pairings lost and ultimately Dover won the day, yet the team seemed to be in good spirits to have played the way they did against tough opposition. Washburn and fellow first-year Roshini Arekapudi got their first taste of varsity tennis, and will only continue to grow with time.

Overall, the team showed signs of improvement and many of the newcomers had a chance to scrimmage against Dover’s players. Malette said that at this stage, it’s all about the technical and mental side of the game. Understanding where and when to be in certain spots, how to respond to certain shots and learning to analyze the game.

Malette knows the road ahead is long, but he and his team walked off the court with big smiles on their faces.

“You come into these things, and you know you love your kids like they’re your own and you want only the best, and you think we might be able to win and we did win in our own way. It’s the little things,” he said.