Seventy-six miles up the California coast lies sunny Carpenteria. The oceanside city is known for its beaches, but Archer girls may know it better for tennis.

On Nov. 21, during Thanksgiving Break, varsity tennis senior co-captains Sara Rabinowitz and Liadan Solomon traveled to Carpenteria for the first round of the doubles CIF-SS playoff.

“[Liadan and I] put a lot of energy into the match,” Rabinowitz said. “We had really good collaboration and communication with the coaches, but in the end we didn’t end up winning.”

The Panthers fell short to Cate School.

“At first we struggled a bit. There’s nervous energy at the beginning [of games],” Rabinowitz said. “Over the season, we’ve realized it takes a match for us to warm up, then we start to win. We’ve gotten into this pattern of digging a big whole for ourselves, and we have to try and catch up.”

Although the team’s season ended on Nov. 2, Rabinowitz and Solomon continued to practice in order to prepared for the doubles CIF tournament.

“It feels really awesome [to make it to CIF],” Rabinowitz said. “It’s the big thing you work up to all season.”

Earlier in the season, the duo were named Liberty League Doubles MVP’s after placing first in league in the doubles event. 

“Since it was my first year playing tennis, it was always awesome knowing that my teammates were close by to help me with anything I needed,” Solomon said, “I am really proud of everything we accomplished and the family that we created.”

Teammate and co-captain Mari Goldberg ’17 — who was named to the Liberty League All-League Team — qualified as an alternative for the CIF-SS individual playoff, but did not play.

The JV team also concluded a successful season. The team went undefeated with a 6-0 overall record; this was the first time in school history for a tennis team to have an undefeated season.

Abigail Lischak ’20 and Hannah Katzenstein ’20 led the JV team by winning all 15 matches they competed in.