Senior racquetwomen Renee Repella (left) and Rachel Kliger are the Germantown Academy tennis team captains this season. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Heading into the 2017 girls' tennis season, Germantown Academy has been reconfiguring its doubles line-up but has returned last year's singles trio intact. At first through third singles are senior Renee Repella, junior Emma Menkowitz and sophomore Tiffany Zhong.

Repella has benefitted from attending a summer session at the IMG Academy in Florida. She and fellow senior Rachel Kliger are the Patriots' co-captains this season.

In early interscholastic action, the doubles flights have been filled by Kliger, junior Julia Ostrovsky, sophomores Sadie Andra and Alice Su and freshmen Haley Marks, Sarah Rojas, Kendall Skalicky and Emily Wang.

Providing depth for the GA varsity are senior Sophie Asher, junior Devon Gelman and sophomores Laura Lennon and Amanda Li.

After scrimmaging North Penn High School at the end of August, the Pats were supposed to play Gwynedd Mercy Academy last Wednesday (Gwynedd is coached by Guadalupe Prince, who pilots the GA boys' team in the spring), but that bout was rained out. GA played its first official match against New Hope Solebury High School last Friday, winning all but one singles and one doubles contest to post a 5-2 team victory.

The Patriots are heading into their third season under head coach Lora Ball, who in the spring mentors the boys' team at Upper Dublin High School. She'll be assisted at GA by Laura Gergen, who came on board last fall.

In 2016, Germantown Academy split with its two Inter-Ac League opponents on this side of the Schuylkill, taking a 4-3 decision from Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, and joining the list of victims of league champion Penn Charter.