Exchange student Louise Lorillard from France enjoyed her time this spring playing for the Nashua North girls tennis team. (Telegrph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Nashua High School North exchange student from Normandy, France, Louise Lorillard, wanted to play a spring sport for the Titans after arriving here in January and settling in.

What to try out for? She was thinking track and field, but then settled on tennis, because she plays in France.

But only one problem. No tennis racket.

However, she was able to get one with help from her host family and became a fixture in the middle of the Titans ladder as a junior. The season for North ended 10 days ago as they just missed the Division I tournament.

“Louise is awesome,” North co-coach Jothan Massey said. “This is an awesome experience we were able to get for her.

“She fit right in with the girls and I think skill-wise we were able to fit her in right where she was playing, (No.) 4 and 5 and she progressed throughout the year. All good things.”

Lorillard plays tennis in France, but not for her school. You see, in France, there’s no high school sports. “I’m in a club outside of school,” she said. “But here, being with all the girls, that was really fun. This was one of my favorites. The coaches are really nice, that was good.”

Of course there was an adjustment period for everything, not just tennis, as one would expect.

“It was a little difficult to adapt at the beginning, especially at school, everything is different, the system is different,” Lorillard said, adding that she also had to adapt to staying with a new family. “The U.S.wasn’t my first choice, but it was a great experience, a great place to go, everyone was so welcoming, it was a great choice at the end.”

School is stricter in France, she said, with entirely different curriculum. She has a ceramics class at North, something not available in her country.

Also there’s about 30 students in her classes back home in France and they stay together as a class the entire day. At North all have different classes and different classmates from class to class.

“I could still meet people, but it’s harder to talk to people,” she said. “But I’m pretty sociable so it was easy for me to meet people.”

Of course, dealing with winter was an experience.

“I didn’t expect that,” she said. “Dealing with snowstorms right when I arrived.”

But she got to go skiing with her host family, which was nice.

The one thing she also had trouble getting used to was the American food. “It’s really different,” Lorillard said. “I miss France for that.”

After school ends later this month, she’ll be in the country until leaving on July 20. Her father is is going to arrive and the to will travel. She was originally set to leave on June 30 but wanted to stay in the U.S.to experience the Fourth of July.

What was the best part about tennis?

“I met a lot of people from other teams,” she said. “It was actually really nice to be able to see other schools, how it’s like. And having also the team spirit was really good.”

“We were able to give her this experience, is awesome, and I think she’s going to remember it for a long time,” Massey said.

SEMIS SET FOR TODAY

Two local girls teams are still in action, and will be competing in today’s semifinals at 4 p.m.

First, in the Division I semis, No. 3 Bishop Guertin (13-2, 13 in a row) will be at No. 2 Derryfield (14-1) at 4 p.m. And in Division II, defending champion and No. 1 unbeaten Souhegan (15-0, winners of 32 straight) will host No. 4 Plymouth (13-2) at the Camp Young Judea courts in Amherst.

The Cards fell to Derryfield 6-3 in their season opener in Nashua back on April 8 – nearly two months ago.

“Our girls were kind of raw,” Cards coach Marcel Gamache said. “We hadn’t really played a lot, there was a lot of bad weather, we really couldn’t practice a lot. That’s why I was ‘We’ve got to fight, we’ve got to play.”

The Cards saw the 6-3 loss to the Cougars almost as a moral victory because usually that might have been a sweep. Ainsley Flood won at No. 6 singles and BG won at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles.

Souhegan, meanwhile, is one of two teams to have beaten the Bobcats, the other being Timberlane. It was Sabers 8, Plymouth 1 back on April 20.

Souhegan’s only loss was at No. 4 singles when Plymouth’s Mikala Walker beat Emma Perrin 8-4. But in all the other matches, Plymouth didn’t win more than four games, and that was just once at No. 6 singles.

The finals for both are Wednesday, with Division II at Dover and Division I at Southern New Hampshire University.

The other Division II semi is No. 3 Timberlane at No.2 Portsmouth and in Division I No. 4 Hanover at No. 1 Bedford.

HB IN BOYS SEMIS TUESDAY

Hollis Brookline No. 2 at 13-2, will host No. 3 Bow on Tuesday in the Division II boys semis at the Nashua High School North courts. They’ve been helped out by North in some past years for tourney play, as it’s an effort to stay outdoors. The only way the match would be played at HB’s usual home of Longfellow Tennis in Nashua is if it rains.

The Cavs beat Bow just two weeks ago at Longfellow, 8-1. The lone blemish for the Cavs was at No.3 singles when the Falcons’ Carter Hall beat Sam Anthony in a close one, 8-6.

In the other semi Tuesday, it will be no. 4 Portsmouth at No. 1, defending champion Goffstown.