Among the five senior leaders, Lindsay Renz, Chelsea Thoden, and Erin Kinney have helped lead the girls tennis team this year. Photo by: Maggie Morrow
By Maggie Morrow
The girls tennis team has several goals in mind for the 2011 season, and they do not plan on letting anything get in their way. Led by five senior captains, the girls are excited to be a part of what has already been a very successful season.
With the loss of several of last year’s top players, the team was prepared for some changes this season. “We lost our number one and number two singles and a one doubles player, so a lot of girls had to step up this year, but we will still be okay,” said senior Shannon Elliott, who has stepped up this year and taken a varsity number one doubles position with partner, Lindsay Renz. “This year we lost 3 seniors from our top 7 that were arguably the best people on our team. That being said a lot of teams underestimated us this year and thought we weren’t going to be very good. However we surprised everyone and went undefeated in the conference,” junior Kelly Hoeffler said.
“[Our main goals for this year were] to win conference, get past Regionals, and go undefeated,” said Elliott. Impressively, the girls have already accomplished their first goal in going undefeated in conference, and they hope to have that same success this weekend in the conference tournament. Our biggest rivals are CMA [Culver Military Academy], St. Joe, and Warsaw,” said Elliott. A victory against St. Joe, the defending state champions, will be a big accomplishment that all the girls are anxious for. Elliott is unconcerned, however, because she believes that PHS has a strong line up with the ability to beat any team this year. We beat Warsaw this year in the regular season 3-2. Hopefully in the conference tournament this weekend we’ll finish ahead of them as well,” added Hoeffler. “We just have to practice hard everyday and learn new skills and placement shots,” Elliott also said.
Hopefully the girls have practiced enough for a victory this weekend in the conference tournament and for the rest of the season.