Tennis: Team chemistry proving to be right formula for Conestoga girls tennis

Berwyn – Throughout Fran Tomaselli’s illustrious 40-year career as the Conestoga girls’ tennis coach it’s no secret that she preaches family.

While tennis is often viewed as an individualistic sport, Conestoga had several opportunities this season to display what has the made the program so successful throughout the years and how Coach Tomaselli’s message has been passed on.

For the past seven years, the winner of the Harriton-Conestoga match has been fortunate enough to go on and win the Central League crown. With last year’s match not decided until the final court finished, Tomaselli was expecting much of the same this year and she hoped that the family atmosphere she has fostered would pay dividends especially with her team suffering a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to West Chester Henderson to open the year.

This year, the Conestoga-Harriton match was held Sept. 8. With the score knotted at 3-3, Tomaselli signaled to sophomore Ashley Griffith that she would decide the match. After feeling like she had let her team down against Henderson dropping the deciding point, Griffith was determined not to have a repeat result.

“Against Henderson I did not know what the score of the match was and when I lost I felt like I had let my team down,” said Griffith following the match against Radnor. “So if the match was tied I wanted to know. I was tired and it was a long match so I wanted to use it as motivation.”

The plan worked to perfection as Griffith outlasted Harriton’s Sophia Sassoli 3-6, 7-6(8), 6-3 to give her team the win and the inside track on an eighth consecutive Central League title.

“The win over Harriton [Sept. 8] will probably be our biggest win of the season, as for the last seven seasons whichever team has won our match has gone on to win the league championship,” said Tomaselli. “This then gives the team automatic entry into the district tournament. We also knew that they have three excellent singles players, which makes it very difficult for other teams to beat them. That is why it so very important to have players believe in each other and realize that it takes more than three players to make a team. It doesn’t matter where you play on the team – first singles or third doubles, each match counts the same toward a total team victory. My players understand this concept and believe in each other!”

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