Walter Johnson junior Lauren Wolman has stopped playing tennis year round to concentrate on her favorite sport, lacrosse. But she’s starting to reconsider her choice.
Playing No. 1 singles this fall, Wolman (10-1) has beaten several year-round players. Making it that much more fun is the success of her team. With a 5-2 victory Wednesday afternoon over visiting Magruder, WJ claimed its first Montgomery County Division I championship in 11 years.
Wolman rolled past sophomore Moriah Burke, 6-1, 6-2, leading a Wildcats’ sweep of the singles matches. In each of the other singles slots, WJ players beat counterparts from Magruder (8-2, 4-2) who were undefeated at the position they played Wednesday.
Sophomore Tiffany Lin (No. 2), junior Maraya Pratt (No. 3) and sophomore Alicia Rodgers (No. 4) were the other singles winners. None of the three has lost a set this season. In fact, Lin hasn’t lost a match in her career.
“We just have a lot of depth and we’ll have even more next year,” said Lin, noting that the team has only one senior.
The defining win for Walter Johnson (11-0, 7-0) came last week against defending champion Churchill, 4-3. The competition was tied, 3-3, Wednesday when darkness fell upon the deciding match. The following day, WJ sophomore Alina Marciniak and junior Jimenez Talevera won at No. 3 doubles on a third-set tie-breaker, 7-5.
“It was a really big deal. There must have been a hundred people watching us,” said Marciniak. “We were really nervous. Somehow we pulled it off. We finally beat Churchill.”
Finally indeed. In each of the previous three seasons, WJ had gone 11-1 with the lone loss coming to Churchill. In each of the three defeats, the score was 4-3.
“It’s not that Churchill was down this year,” said WJ coach Mary LaFratta. “It’s that this team is very good. It finally fell our way.”
Wildcat strike
» WJ coach Mary LaFratta took over two weeks into the season after Nathan Schwartz departed with “child care issues,” said LaFratta.
» WJ will try to end Churchill’s four-year reign of Montgomery County championships. The county tournament begins Oct. 20.
