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wi

Raider tennis squad climbs the state ladder

MIKE ROSENBAUM
Special to the Jewish News

11 ust how good is the
North Farmington High
School girls tennis team?
The answer should come
this weekend, at the Division 2
state championship tournament.

13

Coach Joe Brennan talks with his
North Farmington team.

The Raiders completed a dom-
inating regular season by winning 1.timERKUS:lainniNVEMMI
30 of a possible 32 points Oct. 9
Emily Jaffe hits during practice.
in the Western Lakes Activities
Association (WLAA) tournament.
North Farmington also won the WLAA dual-meet championship and finished
11-0-1 in dual matches.
The Raiders won last Friday's regional tournament in Livonia to qualify for
this weekend's state meet. They took seven first places and a second place in
the region's eight flights.
North Farmington's strength lies in its four singles players, three of whom
are Jewish: No. 1 Emily Jaffe, No. 2 Bethany Nestor and No. 3 Amy Berke.
Other Jewish players include Kimmy Solarz at No. 2 doubles, Jessica.
Hoffman at No. 3 and three players who rotate on the No. 4 team: Sarah
Williams, Rachel Redmond and Alyssa Trotsky.
"We have a large percentage of Jewish girls on the team," says coach Joe

Brennan, "so we were very,
very strict about not having
practice or not having any-
thing on the Jewish holidays
this year."
Brennan is not surprised
by the success of the team,
which also won the WLAA
dual-meet and tournament
championships last season,
"They're doing pretty
well," he says. "I have some
incredibly wonderful girls. I
have really good-hearted
girls (who are) hard-working
and great students."
No. 1 singles player Jaffe
notes that North
Farmington's "singles are
really strong and our dou-
bles really stepped up. They
really improved as the sea-
son went along. They got
used to playing with their
partners and really stepped
up and did a good job."
In her second year at No.
1, Jaffe, a sophomore, is
doing a good job herself A
.„
Maccabi gold medal winner
at Philadelphia this summer,
Jaffe won the WLAA No 1 singles title for the second straight season.
Brennan describes Jaffe as "a solid tennis player who has the ability to do
many different things. She can play aggressively; she can play consistent y"
Jaffe's father, Jeff, says Emily, who started at shortstop on North
Farmington's varsity softball team as a freshman, has always been a real good
athlete. She probably takes after her older brother Brad" (a former state No. 1
singles champ viho now plays varsity tennis at Emory University in Atlanta).
"She has very powerful, very penetrating groundstrokes. And she thinks real
well on the court. She can break down her opponent real well."
Jaffe, 14, has earned enough points in U.S. Tennis Association (USTA)
tournament play this season to assure herself of a national ranking in the 16-
year-old category before the end of the year
Coach Brennan notes that Bethany Nestor, a senior captain, is "the same

et
10/19
2001

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