The Tamaqua girls tennis team brought back ten returning players this sesaon.

After finishing last season with a 7-9 record, this Tamaqua team is filled with upperclassmen and looking to seize the opportunity to win now.The Lady Raiders are displaying that experience early in the season.Tamaqua defeated Jim Thorpe 4-1 on Thursday. The Schuylkill League victory marks the third win a row for head coach Jennel Yelito's team.Maddie Davis and Allison Pedersen of Tamaqua are both having solid junior campaigns thus far in 2014. The duo earned wins in the No. 2 and No. 3 singles matches respectively against Jim Thorpe."The entire team played well and I'm encouraged with what I saw," said Yelito." We're very happy with the way we've been playing over the course of our win streak and I couldn't be more proud of the girls right now."The best match of the day was the No. 1 singles match played between Jim Thorpe's Gabbie Binder and Tamaqua's Maddie Dolinsky.Dolinsky forced a third set, but Binder persevered back to earn a 6-4 victory as the players turned in some truly some great tennis.Jim Thorpe head coach Norb Lienhard noted that Binder "fought back," but was not availble for furthur comment.Yelito had some positive thoughts of her own on the match between the two No. 1 players."Maddie (Dolinsky) did an excellent job today. It was a very competitive match. There were a few critical points during the match and she realized some were more important than others depending on where she was in the entire match."She did a fabulous job by bringing it to a final set which could have gone either way. It's tough to play at the top and lead the team, but she is certainly doing a great job so this season."Tamaqua's three game win streak is already almost half of last season's win total. Yelito enjoys her team's willingness to learn and love of the sport."I love this team. My seniors are the first group of kids that I had when I first started teaching sixth grade, so they are very close to my heart," said Yelito. "All of these girls on the team are nice, smart, and respectful. This team wants to play, learn, and become better."Yelito is hoping the sucess of the tennis program will enourage more girls to play in the upcoming seasons. The Raiders had no new players join the team this year."We're going to lose a lot of seniors after the season," said the Tamaqua coach. "It's hard to get numbers here since we don't have a middle school team. We'll see how things go and hopefully some more girls will look to join the team next season."SINGLESGabbie Binder (JT) def. Maddie Dolinsky 6-2, 5-7, 6-4; Maddie Davis (T) def. Hope Damian 6-2, 6-1; Allison Pedersen (T) def. Brittney Marzen 6-0, 6-3.DOUBLESBeth Kistler/Jasmin Mena (T) def. Emily Layden/Mami Quevedo 6-1, 6-1; Amy Gardner/Brooke Dehart (T) def. Ellana Adames/Lauren Hill 6-1, 6-1.