The Saratoga Springs High School girls’ tennis team is going through the normal growing pains that many teams go through over the course of a season.

Evidence of the ups and downs is this week. On Monday, the Blue Streaks (4-2 Suburban Council, 5-2 overall) were dominant in a 9-0 victory over Mohonasen.

Just two days later, Saratoga was dominated in a 7-2 loss to Shenendehowa.

“We’ve got a young team. We lost some key players, but you can’t do anything about that,” longtime coach Rich Johns said. “We’ve had a lot of young kids play well.”

Johns has just two seniors in singles - No. 3 Kat Sutton and No. 4 Laura Yepsen. The remainder of the four singles slots are occupied by sophomores - No. 1 Sara Bjork, No. 2 Rebecca Mangona, No. 5 Kate Wait and No. 6 Julia Ida.

In doubles, the No. 1 team consists of junior Charlene Melindo and sophomore Kaitlyn McNutt.

The No. 2 team on Wednesday was sophomore Molly Zanetti and senior Natalie Jones. Juniors Brie Ernst and Emily Breitbart were in the No. 3 slot against the Plainsmen. Both are in their first year on the varsity squad.

Mangona was the only singles winner for Saratoga with a 7-6 (8-6) and 7-5 victory over Meghan Patenaude. Ernst and Breitbart were the only doubles winners, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 over Rachel Masrouri and Allison Blenik.

“We got great play at No. 2 singles from Rebecca. We also got solid play at No. 3 doubles,” Johns said after the match. “Overall, I’m pleased with our team growth.”

Johns has received great help from assistant coach Tim O’Brien and junior-varsity coach Ann Testa in evaluating the players and finding the right spots to put them in.

Johns lost his No. 1 and No. 2 singles players among many others this season. 

“The hardest thing for a young player to understand is that you can give 100 percent on your side of the net, but still get beat pretty handily by a more experienced player on the other side of the net,” Johns said. “They need to understand that they have just played well.”