The GCMS tennis team achieved victory in its match against Centennial in Champaign on Tuesday, Aug. 28.

The Falcons won 6-3 as a team.

On the singles circuit, junior captain Carson Arends rallied from losing the first set 4-6 to force a tiebreaker via 7-5 win in the second set. She won the tiebreaker 10-4.

“The thing I like about Carson is that she is so mentally strong in her matches,” GCMS head coach Cindy Petersen said. “She never lets a lost set stop her from coming back and getting the win.”

Juniors Shirley Keigher and Aleka Seneca won their matches via tiebreakers as well.

Keigher lost the first set 6-3, but won the next two by scores of 6-4 and 11-9, respectively.

Seneca lost her first set 6-3 as well. She rallied back with a 6-5 victory in the second set and 10-5 in the third.

Sophomores Candis Mueller and Bryce Brennan, both of whom are playing in their first tennis season at GCMS, each won their matches in two sets.

Mueller won her match 6-2, 6-2 while Brennan claimed victory in a 6-2, 6-1 match.

“I look forward to these two young ladies helping out more this season,” Petersen said.

The Falcons achieved a victory in the doubles circuit as well, as the junior duo of Katie Benningfield/Kayla Carlson won its match 8-4.

“In doubles, we play what is called an eight-game pro set,” Petersen said. “It is a little different than singles. Katie and Kayla really used their strategies to win their match.”

Junior captain Meaghan Sharp almost achieved a victory in her singles match as well, winning her first set 6-1. However, she lost the second set 6-2 and the tiebreaker 10-8.

“Meaghan played her best tennis this year,” Petersen said. “She has worked very hard on her serves and strategies in her singles’ game, but wasn’t quite able to pull it off tonight. However, I look for her to provide several wins during the season because she has such a great work ethic, skills and attitude.

“Overall, I was very pleased with the girls’ performances. We had seen some things that we needed to work on last week and after working on them the girls were able to turn around some of their games because of the hard work in practices. As you can see, I have a young line up and I look forward to seeing what they can do this year and next.”

On Thursday, GCMS traveled to Watseka for a match and won 3-2.

Arends and Sharp were responsible for all of the Falcons’ wins. Arends won her singles match 6-2, 6-2 while Sharp took a 6-2, 6-1 victory.

The doubles team of Arends and Sharp won its match 6-2, 6-1 as well.

The GCMS tennis team will take the court on Thursday for a match in Coal City at 4 p.m.