The Bishop Ireton girls tennis team, under the tutelage of head coach Katie Sloper, is off to another fine start.

Sloper, a recent Ireton grad who played collegiate tennis at George Mason University, has been juggling coaching, school, work and a host of duties over the past few seasons (she is also the T.C. Williams Lady Titans tennis coach in the spring).

Ireton weighs in at 2-0 overall, with 6-3 wins over conference rival McNamara and Virginia private school powerhouse Potomac School (McLean).

Potomac School is led by head coach Susan Lehmann and assistant head coach Joe Jozefczyk, whose daughter Kerry was one of the top all-time Ireton girls soccer players when she played at the school nearly 10 years ago.

Ireton, a senior-laden team that finished 14-2 in WCAC dual matches last season, is led by senior Christine McCoy (singles #1), senior Jackie Dorsey (#2), freshman Monica Zakaria (#3), senior Melissa Dickerson (#4), senior Christina Downey (#5) and senior Rachel Gartlan (#6).

Individually, Zakaria, Downie and Gartlan each weigh in with 2-0 records.

On the doubles scene, doubles #1 team  (McCoy/Dorsey) comes in at 1-1, doubles #2 (Zakaria/Dickerson) 2-0, and doubles   #3 (Downey/Gartlan) are at 2-0.

Both Dickerson and Downie are the two Lady Cardinal captains. Dickerson recently commented, Wed like to do as well or even better than we did last year. Were becoming close as a team chemistry-wise.

Head coach Sloper also added, The girls have bonded together well, and were looking forward to a great season.

(The boys season is in the spring and will be coached by Kelly McConville).