By Ankit Khosla ’16, Middle School Staff Writer

There are many people in the Middle School trying to achieve a certain goal. Kids want to become dancers, basketball players, swimmers, or even actors, but nineteen students in the Middle School are following in the footsteps of tennis champion Roger Federer.

The middle school tennis “B” team has had many new players join this season. They have improved in their skills of tennis and grown as a team. Each B-team member practices hard under the coaching of Ms. Masterson, of the Admissions office, and Assistant Coach Rachel Greene’13.

The B-team had their first game against the Summit Middle School. Although the players played extremely well, their opponent slowly defeated NA. The final score was 3-2 to Summit. The two wins were thanks to the amazing work of the first doubles team, Andrew Cohen’15 and Michael Lee’15.

For their final match of the season, the B-team practiced hard for a victory. The match was on a Tuesday against Morristown Beard and they won 4-0. Coach Masterson remarked before the match, “I’m feeling optimistic about next week’s match because I think all of the players are competitive and have enough skills to compete against another B-team. I also feel optimistic about the team’s success because they did fairly well against Summit, even though they faced Summit’s A-team. I feel confident that the team will do extremely well against another B-team.”

The team not only have fun while practicing, they also work on honing in on important skills such as, serving, volleying, and returning serves. “The B-team stands for best team”, says James Marcucci’16, a player on the B-team.

Some of the B-team has also been participating in a team tournament to challenge other players to move up on the list of skill. Ms. Masterson commented, “I feel very happy about my team. I call it the ‘B positive team!’ because the boys are very positive and energetic on and off the courts. They are very enthusiastic about the game.”

This is the last week of Middle School sports, but the B-team will continue to hone their skills to become the leaders of the A-team next year! Ms. Masterson reflected on her team’s performance, “The kids have become more comfortable with each other, and have become more comfortable with themselves. The players have improved in the knowledge of the game, their sportsmanship, and overall, how well they play tennis. I would describe my team as the ‘B for the best team”!”