STAC GIRLS TENNIS: CHAMBERLAIN LOOKS TO BUILD NEWLY-MINTED WAVERLY PROGRAM (2025-09-15)

Valley Sports Report
WAVERLY — The opportunity was there, so Waverly boys tennis coach Ron Chamberlain took advantage of it to create a girls tennis team, which began play in its inaugural season last week.

"New York State has girls tennis in the fall, and I wanted to expand girls participation in tennis at Waverly, so the logical choice was to create a girls team from the two athletes I had last year on the mixed team — during the boys spring season — and grow a girls squad to compete directly against other girls in STAC," said Chamberlain.

Chamberlain has hopes of growing the team this year and in the future.

"We currently have five, but I am recruiting every day, and I am hopeful I should be up to eight or 10 participants by the end of the season," he said. 

"Just today, I had three girls say they were interested in trying out tennis and signing up," added Chamberlain.

Senior Ava Witman and junior Sofia Storelli notched the first two individual wins in program history last week.

They are joined on the roster by senior Kearstin Stout, junior Sophia Nierstedt, and freshman Aubrey Everson.

"We are a young team," said Chamberlain. "Only one player, Kearstin Stout, really has any experience from last season, and that was mainly in exhibition matches. 

"Ava Witman, Sophia Nierstedt, Sofia Storelli, and Aubrey Everson are all new to the sport this season," he noted. "They have all been working hard on their fundamentals these last three or fourweeks, and I am seeing growth in each athlete.

"Some might have better serves or groundstrokes than others on the team, but they are improving every day as players," he added.

Chamberlain has modest expectations for the 2025 season, and is looking to build from the ground up.

"Growth comes one step at a time," he said. "It starts with building fundamentals and then having each of them experience some modest success by winning a few games, but maybe not a set or individual match at first.

"As the seasons progresses and they gain more experience, their honest self-reflection as to what they can improve in their individual play, along with more coaching centered around strategy should lead to more success and building of their confidence," noted Chamberlain.

"I expect that to translate from winning a few games in a set, to eventually winning a set, to hopefully winning an individual match for each athlete by the end of the season," added Chamberlain. "I believe they can all accomplish that. They have the work ethic and the heart, now they just have to believe that they can achieve it."

Waverly, now 0-2, plays at Binghamton Monday afternoon.

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IN PHOTO: Waverly's Sofia Storelli. ... VSR STOCK PHOTO.

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