The girl’s tennis team has had a strong start to their season over the last month.While they lost their opening game 10-8 to Orcutt Academy and lost to Santa Barbara High 14-4, they rebounded in their next matches.

This included a 13-5 win over Nordhoff and a 10-8 victory over Carpinteria. The lady Owls were tested against the St. Bonaventure Serpents, tying them overall with matches won forcing a point differential tiebreaker; they came out on top 88-75.

One of the more significant changes this year to girls tennis is the separation into varsity and junior varsity teams, as the program now has enough new players to split into two sections.

“Tennis is going great so far. I love being out on the courts and playing with the team. I am happy to have Coach Rob Cowell again this year, and I think Coach Lauren is doing a great job with the JV girls as well,” said senior varsity player Sophia Bakaev.

When asked about how the season was going, Coach Rob said,“Very well.We played a rigorous schedule from the beginning of the season. We went up against teams that were Division 1 and Division 2. Those are teams that are two divisions ahead of us, at least.” He continued, “The turning point for us was when we beat Carp High, which is a team that we’ve never beaten in my time at Laguna.”

The expansion into two separate teams is a testament to how quickly tennis is expanding at Laguna.“We will see how the season goes but I am optimistic — we have a large team with many talented players. Go Owls,” Bakaev said.