This season is shaping up to be a game changer for the Beachwood girls tennis team.

In an away match against Gilmour, the team scored its first win of the season on Aug. 26 with a 3-2 victory.

David Cole, who is in his fourth year as boys varsity coach, has now taken on the girls high school and middle school teams as well.

Cole explained the lineup for the Gilmour match:

“It was Jessica Tall, our co-captain, at first singles, senior Kathleen Fullerton at second singles, freshman Gabby Rodriguez at third. [We had a] first doubles team of Caroline Stern and Erica Gross, second doubles team of Maya Peleg and Co-Captain Lynn Jiao.”

Gilmour was especially strong at first and second singles.

“There’s a lot of strategy that goes into team matches,” Cole said. “It’s about making the best possible lineup without stacking, and so I figured we needed to win the bottom of the bracket.”

Co-Captain Lynn Jiao and senior Maya Peleg felt that Gabby Rodriguez, who played third singles in the match, was instrumental in the win.

“Gabby is just awesome. She really pushed herself in that match and came out with the win,” Peleg said.

Cole is hopeful for the upcoming season.

“We’re going to be ok,” he said. “We’re going to beat the teams we should beat. We play a very tough lineup. It’s the philosophy of [Athletic Director] Peters that you run the toughest lineup you can. Our win-loss record will not be as good as if we played weaker teams.”

Cole is focused on is team spirit.

“It’s something we’re working on,” he said. “You do better if you play for your team as opposed to for yourself. To me a large part of high school sports is playing for the team.”

Peleg is focused on unity.

“We want to win,” Peleg said. “We’re a close knit group of girls, we all get along really well.”

“There’s a lot of spirit and cheering, we’re all pretty good friends,” Jiao said.

Cole hopes to get a sense of the team members skills this year.

“Being first year coach, I’ve been hesitant to set goals,” he said. “It’s pretty standard, I want us to compete. If you go out and compete every shot, if you’re focused good things will happen. We have standard practices. A lot of serving, a lot of volleys. It’s trying to figure out who can play doubles which is really important in the world of girls high school tennis, who can volley, who’s aggressive at net.”

“I worked with [Cole] my freshman year,” Peleg said. He’s funny and he want’s to win, he’s very motivated for us to do well.”

The Bison are looking to improve on last year’s 11-10 regular season record and currently have two wins and six losses.

“It’s going to be a struggle, but hopefully bright,” Jiao said.