IAC BOYS TENNIS: DEEP ROSTER COULD HELP NEWARK VALLEY IMPROVE COMPETITIVELY (13 PHOTOS) (2019-03-20)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
NEWARK VALLEY - Thanks to a rule which allows tennis programs with low numbers to combine boys and girls during the spring season, Newark Valley will have a deep roster to work with this season.

"It's primarily boys tennis season because girls play in the fall, but the teams in this area don't have enough players to have separate boys and girls teams, so we have a co-ed team," NV head coach Meredith Meister said. In fact, the majority of her players are actually girls - and she says the majority of her starters will also be girls.

"I have 20 (players) on the team right now. Luckily this year, I recruited four 8th-graders to come up, and they can't play on varsity because they're 8th-grade girls, but for next year that's promising that we're having some young players start to show interest. Twenty is a great number."

Not only is there depth in numbers, but Meister has several returning players, which she hopes will make the Cardinals more competitive.

"I had a lot of players return," she said. "I only had two graduating seniors last year. It was my top two players, but they were still relatively new to the sport, so the majority of my team returned and I think we're going to be very competitive this year. I'd like to see us win several more matches than we did last year."

A promising aspect for the future of the NV program is the fact the Cardinals are relatively young.

"I only have a few graduating seniors. The majority of my team are sophomores and a few juniors, and a lot of freshmen."

Newark Valley opens the season Tuesday at home against Trumansburg at 4:30 p.m.

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IN PHOTO 1: Colby Davis will lead the Newark Valley tennis team into the 2019 season. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.