Wareham High School girls tennis said goodbye to graduating seniors at their Tuesday, May 21 match against Rising Tide Charter Public School.

Seniors Brooklyn Bindas, Stoney Ferry, Julia McDuffy and Keira Pierre got a send off from Coach Geoff Swett and fellow players before Tuesday’s match.

“We have four seniors who are absolutely role models for the team,” Swett said.

Bindas, who has played on the team since 2019, said that she was ready to move onto the next chapter in college, where she will play tennis for Tufts University.

“I’m so excited,” Bindas said. “I’ve always wanted to play college tennis, that’s always been my dream and that’s always been my biggest goal.” 

She said that watching the graduating seniors go off to college last year was sad but also inspiring.

“It made me motivated, kind of the opposite of ‘senioritis,’” Bindas said.

Bindas said that she hopes that the players on the team look up to her in that same way. She said that she tries to be a role model for other players and also their friend.

Swett said the team lost five seniors last year. But even with the loss of this year’s seniors he remains optimistic about the future of the team. There are five eighth graders and three freshmen ready to hold the line for Wareham girls tennis.

“I expect next year’s team to be the least experienced and the least capable,” Swett said. “But after that I expect it to grow a lot.”

This year, the team is preparing to enter the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association playoffs. As of Tuesday, the team is ranked 20 in the MIAA Div. 3 Girls Tennis power rankings. 

To qualify for playoffs, teams must be in the top 32 of their division in league power rankings, Swett said. 

In 2022, the team made it to state finals and ranked second in the state’s division four.  Swett said that the team is currently in a “rebuilding” period even though their record is good. The team currently has a record of 14 wins and two losses. 

Swett said that he doesn’t believe that the team will win the state championship, but believes that they might win one or two playoff rounds and will see what happens after that.

If a sweet senior sendoff wasn’t enough, Wareham defeated Rising Tide, winning four out of five matchups. Swett wrote that Tuesday’s top performers included singles players Bindas, McDuffy, Ferry and the doubles team of Nevaeh Smith and Juliana Statkus.