SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – The Savannah Country Day boys’ and girls’ teams continue to prepare for their state championships matches on May 13 in Rome.

This Saturday, the boys’ team hopes to party like it’s 1981, which is the last time the boys’ tennis team won a state championship.

To get to the championship match, head coach Lamar Kirkley accurately predicted a 3-2 win in the semifinals over Lumpkin County. He said he does not have a prediction for this week.

In the title match, the Hornets face a very talented Wesleyan team out of Atlanta. Country Day knows they cannot overpower their opponent. So they are working on new strategies in practice, as well as, the mental aspect of the game for singles’ players.

“Be aggressive,” No. 1 singles player Henry Berg said. “We’ll probably go out there knowing that we’ll have to win points. So I think aggression, but also staying consistent.”

“Talk to the kids about being positive,” Coach Kirkley said. “You play your best. You put your game on the court. We’ll adjust during the game and maybe try some different things if things are not going well and just find something that works.”

The Country Day girls’ team will also play for a state title and they will play the exact same school in Wesleyan. The girls played their semifinal match against Bremen mere days after their quarterfinal win, so they have had more time between their last match than Wesleyan.

Like the boys’ team, they know the Atlanta area is loaded with talent, so they might have to play differently if they want to win the school’s first state title in more than 20 years.

“We’ve been practicing a lot,” No. 1 singles player senior Claudia Birthiseo said, “like almost every day. I think we’ve made progress. Mostly, strategy, ground strokes and serves a lot.”

“I mean we have just as much talent as they do,” head coach Carrie Vetrosky said. “We’re going to use our patients and we are going to construct points differently than we have in the past. Not just try to keep it over and over. We have some strategies to kind of combat their strengths.”

The girls’ and boys’ matches are at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College. The girls’ match starts at 9 a.m. followed by the boys’ at 1 p.m.