The boys tennis team at Old Rochester Regional High School has expectations – namely that they expect to win.

“We historically have a strong team,” said head coach Russ Keeler. “More often than not, we win.”

The team currently sits at 14-2, has only lost one conference match, and recently clinched its third consecutive South Coast Conference title.

The only game they have lost this season was to Dover-Sherborn High School, the team who defeated them in the playoffs last year, and the team they will likely have to beat to win in the playoffs this year.

The program has been successful for a long time, and the team has an aura of confidence about it.

“You look at the board and see all the the championships we’ve won in the [South Coast Conference],” Keeler said. “The last two years we won, and we should win it this year.”

The conference has eight other teams in it, and ORR has beat all of them. So as the regular season winds down and the team begins to prepare for the playoffs, the players know how important it is to continue working hard in practice and in games.

“Practice is one of the more valuable parts for us,” tri-captain Maxx Wolski said. “We’re all pretty strong players at our level, and it’s nice to be playing without the pressure of a match and still be able to get better at the same time.”

Keeler described the conference as “very weak” aside from Dighton-Rehoboth. This can make it challenging for players to continue to improve if they’re not consistently facing a high-level of competition.

So it is the inter-squad competition that helps to continually make the program as strong and successful as it has been.

First doubles player Josh Lerman said that playing hard against each other in practice allows them to grow.

“(My teammates) know that my backhand is a little bit weaker than my forehand, so when I’m warming up they tend to hit to my backhand,” Lerman said. “We know that if we all play against each other as often as possible and stay competitive within the team, we can get the practice we need.”

The success that the team has found can be attributed to two things – the tennis tradition in the tri-town and Keeler's dedication.

“A big part of [the program’s success] is outside of high school,” Wolski said. “With all the different clubs around here, you get a lot of opportunities to play and start young, and a lot of us have done that.”

And when they make it to high school and join the tennis team, Keeler is there to help them improve and grow even more.

“Part of coach’s strategy is to set goals,” Lerman said. “We keep our goals high but realistic. We have to make sure we have goals set all the time so that we can keep working toward them.”

This year, the team’s goal is simple: win.

“We want to win the conference, and we’d like to go undefeated in the conference as well,” Keeler said. “We want to go to the tournament, and our ultimate goal is to beat Dover-Sherborn.”