With the sun nearly above their heads and the heat rising from the ground of the tennis courts, the MVHS girls tennis team huddled in a circle before their second home match against Los Altos HS.

As one of the earlier matches in the season, the game against LAHS will not count towards the Matadors’ league record. According to co-captain senior Rashmi Ghonasgi, this alleviated the pressure to win.

But since the team lost their last league match by two points, junior Cynthia Hom was hoping to seal the win with this match.

“I was really excited. This is our second league match,” Hom said. “Like ‘let’s go and improve and do better.’”

Hom believes that a major part of tennis is the player’s mental attitude. The three-year varsity player won her first match 6-0 and says she owes the victory to her positive mindset. But she says that this mindset wasn’t present in the second set, when her nervousness overcame her. The girls eventually lost three sets to four.

For Hom, this change in attitude throughout the game is a normal in aspect of sports, but she says the community within a team helps her tune back into an effective and confident mindset.

“One of the main aspects [of tennis] is having a team spirit and that’s really what brings us together and makes us do well in our matches.”