The girls tennis team graduated four seniors from a very successful squad last year. Fortunately, East Brunswick had very talented players waiting to take their place.
"We had a strong freshman class last year," East Brunswick Coach Brian McInerney said. "That makes it less painful to lose the four seniors."
Hannah Monk emerged from that freshman class and will now play first singles as a sophomore. Monk was part of the East Brunswick GMC champion first doubles team last year.
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"She was a really talented player last year and she got even better," McInerney said.
Monk won the challenge match to claim the first singles spot. Anastasia Mogilevski, a junior, will be back to play second singles. Mogilevski was the Greater Middlesex Conference champion last year at second singles.
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"She was a little disappointed she lost the challenge match to Hannah, but she's looking forward to another great season at second singles," McInerney noted.
Dana Tsay is another one of those talented 2010 freshmen McInerney talked about. Now a sophomore, she will play third singles.
"She played some at second doubles last year," McInerney said. "She worked hard in the off-season and now she's the third singles player."
At first doubles, East Brunswick will play Adelina Abdulia (sophomore) and Lisa Zhang (senior).
Abdulia just couldn't quite crack the 2010 lineup for East Brunswick. She was, however, the GMC first singles champion at the JV level.
Zhang was part of East Brunswick's GMC championship second doubles team last year.
At second doubles will be juniors Grace Zhang and Aushwarya Sridhar.
"This will be their first varsity action, but they been playing doubles together since they were freshmen," McInerney said. "They are very familiar with each other and work well together out on the court."
East Brunswick will open the season today, (Wednesday, Sept. 7) against North Brunswick.
"We're not as deep a team as we were last year, but we should be a good team," McInerney said. "A lot of these girls are getting their chance now. They could have started on a lot of other teams last year."
