"It was a pretty successful season, but our greatest success was how the team coalesced as a unit and worked together by the end of the season," said coach Nick Lewis. "They started out as a quiet group, but through (senior) Karan Bains' leadership, they came together to understand the value of collaborative effort.

"In tennis you have learn that while you are playing a match as an individual, your win is part of the greater good to help the team. The overall goal is a team win and getting them to think that their victory or loss mattered to the team as a whole was important."

Bains, the team's captain and No. 2 singles player, earned Most Valuable Player honors.

"Value on a team is undoubtedly the factors which led to team success: the formation of team unity, the ability to motivate and to inspire, and the will to lead," Lewis said. "Our captain for the past two years has accomplished what in my mind defines success. He places the team's spirit and well-being ahead of his own. He represents the school so incredibly well, a respectful man, a man filled with competitive will, a tennis player who wears the WRA uniform with pride as we in turn are proud and lucky to have him in green and white.

"If he would have dropped all sports and focused solely on tennis for the past four years, he would surely be a better tennis player, yet I want him to know that he would not be the person he is today, he would not be the leader whose effect on others is incredibly diffusive. He is the epitome of our school's athletic requirement."

Ben Nelson '13 earned Most Improved Player honors for his doubles play with Aalok Mehta '11.

"Doubles is a far more difficult endeavor than singles in many ways. One must learn to adopt and embrace a unique mindset and adapt one's game to fit the variations the game presents," Lewis said. "Ben learned to control his pace, to focus on placement and, most importantly, to work with his partner and coalesce. Near the end of the season, his play reached a new pinnacle as the duo defeated an overly confident team from U.S. in truly an impressive fashion."

Mehta earned the Coaches/Spirit Award.

"Aalok possesses a healthy blend of characteristics: an odd sense of humor which reveals itself as he laughs at inexplicably random situations, a predilection for strange reactions and zestful one-line phrases to random strangers & and much more," Lewis said. "Yet he is receiving this award not for his quirks, but rather for a surprising dedication which developed this year, a passion for the sport and for winning which I did not see in him until now. On the court, he vocally motivated himself and others. During matches, he often encouraged his teammates to aspire higher, to 'fight' he would say loudly. It is for this match-day grit and determined 'fight' that he is receiving this award."

The Pioneers only lose two seniors with considerable varsity playing time to graduation, so the opportunity for additional team growth is high. Next season the team will rely on Jonathan Deeter '12 and Brandon Sutton '13, along with a promising group of rising sophomores and juniors.