With tryouts wrapped up and the season just around the corner, expectations for the tennis team are as high as ever. The team’s 2025 campaign was nearly perfect, finishing the regular season 16-1, co-claiming the Inter-Ac title, and winning the PAISAA championships. The team looks to repeat that success this year, and they’re ready to get to work.
“Our main goal is to win the Inter-Ac this year,” Fourth Former Van Hinton said. “I think we have a solid team. [We have] a lot of kids on varsity and a lot of good freshmen.”
Leading the team this season are Sixth Formers Kaiser Zhao, James MacColl, and Drew Carrasco. The tennis team also welcomes back Sixth Former Max Olson, who left during his junior year to train at the Junior Tennis Champions Center, which has formed players like World #20 Frances Tiafoe. As Hinton noted, the team boasts plenty of depth, and with young talent complementing strong Sixth Form leadership, success seems well within reach.
“Traditionally, there’s been a culture where seniors don’t interact much with freshmen, leaving the sophomores and juniors to introduce them to the team,” Carrasco said. “I’ve tried to change that this year. My class has been very involved with the freshmen. I don’t find them annoying at all; honestly, they’re some of my favorite people on the team.”
The Varsity tennis team had been toiling with challenge matches for weeks leading up to their match with Radnor.
“Tennis tryouts are interesting because the format isn’t strictly set in stone—it’s not always ‘win this match and you get this spot.’ It’s a very comprehensive process,” Carrasco said. “Since we have so many freshmen, they really had to prove themselves and played a lot more high-stakes matches than I did to earn their spots.”
Like the previous 16 consecutive years, Fords Tennis looks to continue their Inter-AC winning streak.
With tryouts completed and a lineup established, Fords Tennis channels competitive spirit against their opponents.
“At the start of the season, you’re in direct competition with your teammates for spots, which can be tough for morale. But once the challenge matches stop, that internal competition fades,” Carrasco said. “As a captain, I’m focused on shifting that energy toward helping each other and sharing knowledge. We want to stop any bitter competition and focus on beating the other schools instead.”
The Fords opened their season with a 7-0 rout of Radnor High School on March 19. They face their first Inter-Ac matchup against Penn Charter on April 7. Like the previous 16 consecutive years, Fords Tennis looks to continue their Inter-AC winning streak.
“We definitely want to keep that Inter-Ac streak alive. It’s been going for nearly 20 years, so we don’t want to be the ones to lose it! It’s more challenging this year because we’re only playing one Inter-Ac match against each school instead of the home-and-away format, which makes it harder to recover if you tie,” Carrasco said. “Beyond that, we want to win the States again. We’ve only played Radnor so far, but I think we actually have a better team than last year and we won last year. So, that goal feels very attainable.”
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