Heading into the Evergreen District playoffs, the Brentsville District girls tennis team found itself in a familiar position, having locked up third place for the second year in a row within their own district. Unlike last year, however, they had some competition for the spot as Kettle Run matched the girls' 3-5 record, forcing a coin flip to determine seeding in the first round of the playoffs.

Outmatched across the board by Fauquier during their last regular season match of the year Monday, the Tigers could draw strength from the performance of one of their veterans. The team's No. 2 hitter Jill Marianos, a junior who advanced one spot in the pecking order from last year, dispatched her previously undefeated Fauquier counterpart in Nokesville 10-3 to avenge a loss from earlier in the season, even at a time when the Falcons managed to take out BD's team leader Anna Boning in the No. 1 position 10-1.

"Anna's (strength) is power and direction," said Tiger coach Holly Tousha (pronoucned tu-SHAY). "Jill's is placement and court movement."

Perhaps the most important duty for the junior-senior duo who also serve as Brentsville's top doubles team is to give the combined seven sophomores on the varsity and junior varsity squads goals to reach.

"They have a lot to watch," said Tousha, adding that the two provide an "example of what I want to see as a good doubles team with court movement and ball placement."

According to Marianos, one path she finds to victory is exploiting what few weaknesses she can find in a team's second-best player and keep driving that point home until it runs up the score.

"The (weaknesses) they have, you really have to play on," she said.

The University of Mary Washington-bound Boning mentioned though that at this level of play, what she would like her teammates to understand is that the best thing they can do is play their own game without really worrying about the mental chess match they may otherwise find themselves in with their opponents.

"It comes down to you," she said.

Though the team lacks in all-year players and experience, she said, it makes up those deficits through "confidence and determination." Marianos, who also competes for Brentsville in cross country and swimming, mentioned that the Tigers lost two of their top-six players during the season, meaning "a lot of people hard to start stepping up."

Doing so allowed them to clinch a playoff spot above fifth-ranked Liberty though Brentsville and Kettle Run trail first-place Fauquier and second-place Warren County in the standings. Marianos emphasized that when she trains with the team's third and fourth hitters, senior Catherine Kilday and junior Jennifer Castellon, she plays with her normal level of intensity, which she said is beneficial given that her teammates can use that experience and apply it toward weaker opponents during matches.

"You don't back down no matter what," Boning said, directing her comment to Marianos.

"The harder (the training), the better they'll be," Marianos replied.