Kentridge High senior Jessica Lam\u2019s patience and ability to lob the ball on the tennis court have earned her a reputation in the South Puget Sound League North Division.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s feared by opponents,\u201d said coach Vince Howard. \u201cShe\u2019s gonna get the ball back. She rarely misses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lam recounted a teammate\u2019s story about a tournament Lam was unable to attend. An opponent mistook one of Lam\u2019s teammates for Lam. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cShe (the opponent) never came to the net, because she knew I was going to lob it over there,\u201d Lam said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lam, a two-time district qualifier, started playing tennis in seventh grade. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom said, \u2018You need to exercise. I\u2019m going to put you in this program,\u2019\u201d Lam said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lam wasn\u2019t very good when she started playing tennis, often hitting the ball outside of the fence, but she was determined to get better. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot disappoint my coach or my mom,\u201d Lam said of her motivation to improve. \u201cYou just gotta work hard at it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lam attributes her success on the court primarily to one thing. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cReally patience is the key,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you get angry on the court you are going to miss shots.\u2026 If you play it out with a calm mindset you can win any game. You just have to be chill.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lam tries to outlast her opponents on the court. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cHer matches will often last twice as long,\u201d Howard said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Howard recalled Lam\u2019s sophomore year when she faced then-freshman Kathryn Araki of Kentwood in a subdistrict match.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey had a marathon match,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just got to the point where Jessica was wearing her out. It was a landmark match for Jessica.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Both Lam and Howard would like to see Lam qualify for the Class 4A state tournament. Howard said Lam may be paired up with fellow senior Christine Ly as a doubles team for the state tournament. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey make an unusual challenge for their opponents,\u201d Howard said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Where Lam excels in consistency, Ly is more of a power player. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lam, who is the team\u2019s co-captain, is someone her teammates can look up to, Howard said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just hoping everyone has fun and doesn\u2019t regret doing the sport,\u201d Lam said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Last, year the Chargers finished third in their division. Kentridge lost to Kentwood Monday, bringing the Chargers\u2019 conference record to 4-2, second behind division-leading Kentwood, with a 6-1 record. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Howard hopes the team\u2019s success will carryover to next year, but it will take some rebuilding. There are six seniors who start on the Chargers varsity team.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe are losing a lot of good players,\u201d said Howard, who added there are several good prospects on the junior varsity team.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n But Kentridge\u2019s tennis program is about more than excelling on the court, the coach said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n One graduating senior from each of the girls and boys teams who lettered in tennis is awarded a $500 Bob Armstrong Tennis Scholarship through the Kent Community Foundation each year. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kentridge High senior Jessica Lam\u2019s patience and ability to lob the ball on the tennis court have earned her a reputation in the South Puget Sound League North Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":9433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9432"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}