The match got off to a rough start, with Abass and Thompson losing the first set 6-2. But they battled back to take the next set by the same score. With Bryn Mawr up 5-4 in the third set, Abass sealed the deal with two aces to take the set 6-4. And with that, the Mawrtians claimed their third championship title in four years, as well as a league-best eight championship titles overall.
Taborda-Almaguer says that the high standards the girls set for themselves really made a difference. “The level of the players [this year] was very impressive,” she said. “I think that pushed everyone on the lineup and made for a really, really strong team.”
The team is graduating four seniors this year – Corse, Burchell, Anum Haque and Vaidehi Kaushal. Corse, who put an exclamation mark on her senior season by not only winning a fourth-consecutive No. 1 singles title but also by winning every single game (an “incredibly tough thing to do,” Taborda-Almaguer points out), will go on to play for the University of Notre Dame. Burchell, who only lost one game throughout the course of the season, will continue her career at Boston University.
Nevertheless, Taborda-Almaguer is very optimistic about the team’s prospects – especially given that the JV team is riding a streak of four undefeated seasons, signaling a great pool of upcoming talent. Taborda-Almaguer is quick to note that the JV deserves a great deal of recognition for what they have accomplished. “It’s truly a testament to the team that they pull it together every single time,” Taborda-Almaguer says. “The last time they lost a match was in October 2012 against McDonogh.”
She also notes, however, that she and Brendler are conscious of the pressure this puts on the girls, and work to moderate that. “They don’t want to be the ones to drop the ball,” she said. “We try not to let that get to them too much – to only focus on what they can do at the time. We listen to the kids, and we work with them at different levels. We both try to really be there for everybody and have everybody’s back. That’s how they know they can depend on us. It has really worked well.”