The Lincoln East girls tennis team is filled with many talented players that are doing very well this season.  A well-known player on the team is senior, Ashley Francisco.

Francisco has been playing tennis for about six or seven years.  She played when she was younger, but went away from it for a couple years before picking back up the sport in the seventh grade.  In the beginning, Francisco really wanted to play basketball, but her parents said no to that because she was too small.  Then, her dad, Joseph, who played tennis in his younger days, introduced his beloved sport to Ashley and her sister, Laura.  Soon after, she really started to have fun with the sport, and later to her career to the high school level.

During Francisco’s sophomore year she swung up to varsity from the junior varsity team.  She secured a spot solely on varsity during her junior and senior years.  Her favorite part about being a part of the tennis team this year is the fact that everyone gets along with each other, which helps each and every moment with her teammates, whether it’s during practices or meets, that more of a special memory.

“It’s competitive, but still fun,” says Francisco.

The senior leader also loves playing at meets, in either singles or doubles, and giving ‘the look’ to her opponents when they call a shot out of bounds when it was clearly in.

“This season is definitely different,” said Francisco when asked how this season is going.

Francisco said that last year there wasn’t a lot of seniors that really portrayed leadership qualities, so she says that it is more fun being a part of the leadership role this season.  This year she and her teammates are closer than years past, which she thinks will take them a long way.  She also likes that there is less pressure than in years past.  The varsity team as a whole has had many clean sweeps, which always help to have a fun season.  

This season, her individual goals are to become a better leader, be more inclusive with the younger girls, and work up to being someone that any of her teammates can talk to about anything.  
Once the girls tennis season is complete and Francisco has graduated she plans on attending Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, and major in biological chemistry and computer science with a minor in neuroscience.