Windham boys’ tennis falls at Falmouth

By Matt Pascarella

Windham High's varsity boys’ tennis team traveled to Falmouth to take on the Navigators on Friday, May 8. Windham gave it their best and left it all on the court but lost to Falmouth, 5-0.

Windham senior Carter Mathieu get to the ball in time during
a boys' tennis match against Falmouth on May 8.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA 

“When we’re going into a match that’s a very uphill battle, it can be super demoralizing especially walking away 0-5, when we’ve lost a lot of matches at love, so I always want them to get something out of it,” said Windham boys’ tennis assistant coach Julia Parmakan. “When we were riding on the bus I asked them to think about what they wanted to work on ... also we talked about things going well every match and we talked about things to work on. So often the kids dwell on what’s not working that they don’t think about what is working. Having something to focus on, even if you don’t win a game, makes it seem like this was a good use of my time and (that they) learned something and improved, even after a loss.”

In the singles matches, Windham seniors Carter Mathieu and Padrick McGuire both lost with a score of 8-0. Senior Nolan McPhail lost, 8-4.

Coach Parmakan said McPhail took full advantage of the day and this might be his best match of the season, even though it was a loss.

“We came into this game to just learn something from it,” said McPhail. “I think it was 2-1 and I got one game and I was over the moon because I didn’t think I was going to (win) one. I realized I was playing the best tennis of my life, and I figured I might as well keep going. I think mood (went well). The guy I played against was a great guy, he made it a lot of fun, and it just made the game enjoyable and kept me going. I found a way to get as many points as I could, tried to pull him back, get power shots, hit the lines right and it was working well.”

The doubles matches saw Windham senior Nate Paulding and sophomore Nicolas Hidell lose, 8-2, and senior Milo Keary and freshman Landon Laszczak lost, 8-0.

“Coming into it ... we were going to give it our best shot,” said Keary. “We’ve been learning a lot of new techniques recently and we wanted to put those to use and adjust as needed. We ended up doing that which was good for us, we got a couple of points that way. Having the rackets ready (went well). Coach Parmakan told us to have your rackets up and I hit a couple, including a serve that I got a return on it, because my racket was already there and I didn’t have to think about it. Calling balls (needs work) ... this game we had a harder time calling which ball was whose. We just keep working on that and we’ll get better with our placement.”

According to Parmakan, she knew a lot of the kids went into the game feeling defeated, which makes play that much more difficult. Instead of thinking ‘pressure is off, it’s not going to go well,’ they could have used this as an opportunity to think ‘the pressure is off, I can play however I want.’

She would love to see the team work on consistency. For a lot of the team, it’s important to work on skills like getting the ball past the service line and moving their opponent. For new players aiming is always something to work on. Parmakan wants the team to know a lot can be learned from a loss; playing strong players is always beneficial. <