The Mills girls’ tennis team played a tournament on September 27th at Freedom High School. They split up the high schools into two divisions, each division having a total of four high schools. Mills went up against Miramonte, O’Dowd, and finally Liberty High School. They won all of four games, defeating all three high schools; they came home victorious after not winning the tournament last year.
I was able to talk to players on the team. Sophomore Maya Heath-Dolmage (10) has been on the team since her freshman year and has now been on the tennis team for two years. I was also able to speak with senior Kylie Huynh (12), who has been on the team since her freshman year. She is now in her fourth year and serves as the captain of the tennis team. Throughout the tournament, they remained positive and encouraged each other with team cheers.. 

Unfortunately, Huynh was struggling with shin splints during the tournament, but she didn’t let that stop her. During the tournament, her legs were killing her, but Huynh persevered through the pain and helped the team secure the win. “But honestly, what kept me going was that we had the tournament last year, but then we didn’t win,” Huynh shared.

After coming up short in the Freedom High School tournament last year, I asked Heath-Dolmage about losing last year. She explained, “We only lost one of our matches, and that’s why we lost it. If we won that, then we would have won that tournament.” But losing last year didn’t stop them. Instead, it encouraged them to do better. 

Huynh expressed, “Being back in that environment, it’s just I got this one, I’m gonna try and take this medal home, and do it with my whole team.”  

After the tournament, to celebrate their win, Huynh said, ”We made a TikTok, and then we also took a bunch of pictures, and we actually had a dinner together as a team.” 

Congratulations to the Mills girls’ tennis team!