Sweat drips from the faces of the varsity girls tennis team as the game trudges on. Each one putting their hearts into the game, in an exhausting battle against time and the foreign competition. Only one can go through, so the pressure sits in as the blood begins pumping.

Since the start of the year, the Niles West Varsity Girls Tennis team has been working hard. With help from varsity coach George Bravos, many girls are feeling prepared for the upcoming matches.

“We’ve been practicing a lot, conditioning too, we’ve been running all around the school,” senior Shahneeza Laliwala said. “We even hung out with Perez in the VPE room [weight room].”

Bravos set many goals for the team this year, which he hopes the team will fulfill.

“Our goal is always to finish above .500 if we can. We’re in the toughest conference in the state of Illinois, the teams in our conference are consistently in top five or top ten in the state, so it’s tough to have a winning record inside of conference,” Bravos said. “But for our overall season if we can be over .500 that’s a good season for us and we’re always looking for a couple players to qualify for state.”

Many players also set individual goals this season, which many of them hope to accomplish.

“Prior seasons I played a lot of doubles matches, while this year I’m playing a lot of singles matches,” senior Isabella Reza said. “It’s definitely a different game, so I really want to improve my conditioning and getting to the ball quicker.”

Reza also believes that many of the teams younger players will be key to their upcoming matches.

“Junior Tegan Bollinger performs really well in single matches and junior Isabel Lodge works really well with senior Shelly Sabaricos,” Reza said.

The next home match for the girls varsity tennis team is scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 20 at 4:30 P.M. against Evanston at Evanston.