The girls varsity tennis team lost 4-1 to the Newton South Lions on Friday, May 5 at the Newton South High School courts.

The Warriors began their fight under blinding daylight and finished as the sun was setting the sky. They returned home and began to prepare for their next match.

Freshman Hallie Schneider said that she believes her team’s mindset going into the game contributed to their loss.

“Usually, like today, you have to truly believe that you’re gonna win. When you play a point, you have to truly think to yourself ‘I can do this.’ It’s cheesy, but you actually do have to think that. And sometimes when you don’t actually believe in yourself, you won’t win the point,” Schneider said.

Junior Samantha Rosenzweig said that she and junior Siena West played tough opponents, but they know what they need to work on.

“[The opponents] both had really great serves-a lot of power on them-which made them really hard to return. They also clearly both worked on volleys and learned where to place things. I think that’s something we need to work on, on how to return those,” Rosenzweig said.

Senior Alex Levy said that while she and senior Ava Varrell were initially losing their game, they revised their strategy and were able to make a small comeback before it ended.

“I think that what we decided to do was just kind of play to our abilities. We literally told each other, let’s just play for fun and just try and hit it back as much as we can and it worked,” Levy said.

Freshman Tatiana Shrayer entered the game with high hopes and exited it feeling more motivated for the future.

“I want to have a winning streak. I want us to win every single varsity, every single junior varsity game, one at a time. And I want us to make playoffs,” Shrayer said.

Head coach Keith Carson said he is also optimistic for the future despite Brookline’s loss.

“We played a really tough team-they were well coached. We didn’t come out the victors, but I think we learned a lot today,” Carson said. “For our next match, our doubles teams will be more aggressive, and we’re going to keep getting better and better as the season goes on. We’ll keep that momentum going.”