IN FORM: Hun School girls’ tennis player Sophia Lin shows her form last week at the Mercer County Tournament. Junior Lin advanced to the quarterfinals at second singles to help Hun finish sixth of 18 teams at the competition. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Competing in the Mercer County Tournament last week, the Hun School girls’ tennis team came out on fire.

“We all won in the first round,” said first-year Hun head coach Dan Horowitz, whose team ended Monday’s preliminary rounds at fifth place of 18 schools in the team standings.

“That was definitely a nice start. There were a few close matches we lost in the next round. I wish I could have been everywhere on Monday and maybe I could have tweaked one or two things.”

The Hun second doubles team of freshmen of Sabrina Wang and Ellyana Perosi ended up having a nice run, advancing to the semifinals and finishing fourth overall after falling in the consolation match as the action wrapped up Wednesday at the Mercer County Park tennis complex.

“The two of them are starting to gel together as a team,” said Horowitz, whose squad ended up sixth in the final standings at the competition won by Princeton High.

“They are both solid singles players actually and they are starting to learn how to work together and hold their serve. The other team had a junior and a senior and they were pumping each other up a little more. They were a little bit more sensitive to each other’s ups and downs whereas my team is still developing that. I am thrilled that they got this far.”

Horowitz is pumped up to be guiding the Hun squad. “It is a nice program, the girls are really into their tennis,” said Horowitz, who previously
coached at Friends Select School in Philadelphia. “I am thrilled that Hun is giving me an opportunity to coach this team.”

In coaching his players, Horowitz is focusing on helping them with the mental aspects of the game.

“It is working on the emotional stuff because they are young and even some of the older ones have the nerves kick in,” said Horowitz. “It is learning how to relax out there.”

In Horowitz’s view, the Raiders are learning those lessons. “I think we are going to see a few more solid performances overall,” said Horowitz, whose team lost 4-3 to the Mercersburg Academy (Pa.) on Saturday in dual match play and has matches at Lawrenceville School on October 2, at Blair Academy on October 5 and at Trenton Catholic Academy on October 7.

“I want to see someone come out here and just say I played a great match regardless of the win and loss. Some of them are coming off the court winning 6-0, 6-0 and I say how did you do and they say I should have been off the court sooner. This is the mental game where they have to work on their satisfaction.”