by Nick Palmarine |

The girl’s tennis team finished off the season by sending the doubles team of sophomore Mia Graham and sophomore Cassidy Paul to the district tournament championship match. Although the girls came up short, falling to the Park Hill South team of Marie Gherke and Katie Smith, they had a great comeback victory in the sectional tournament against the St. Teresa’s Academy pair of Grace Wells and Hannah Bredar; giving the girls a shot in the state tournament. Many of the girls on the team did not qualify for state, but they can all agree that the whole team contributed to the success from this season.

“Everyone’s support can help you succeed,” junior Taylor Wetzel said. “The team makes it fun and when you’re having fun, you play better.”

Although most of the time the girls spent together was at practices or matches, they often did things together off the court. They had team sleepovers and weekly team dinners at their favorite restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings. The strong relationships between all the girls on the team helped their performances on the court. These activities helped the team grow closer and improve in their play from last season.

“We’ve been known to be a team that competes well and goes to state,” senior Nikki Jennings said. “Then we dropped off, I think that this year we have shown a great improvement.”

The season, however, did not go as smooth as planned when Wetzel was lost for the season with a foot injury. Wetzel was Paul’s doubles partner and it left Paul looking for a new player to share the court with.

“We all had to step our games up when Taylor went down,” Paul said. “We definitely played well, after.”

Soon after Wetzel went down with the injury, sophomore Mia Graham stepped in as Paul’s new doubles partner just weeks before the district tournament.

“I was very proud of the girls,” Wetzel said. “Mia stepped in and they played great, and now they’re on their way to state.”

The girls responded well to the adversity and it paid off for them. The whole team played well all season as the girls improved from last season. The team sent Graham and Paul to Springfield where they played hard and finished 13th out of 16 teams at state.

“It was intimidating and scary at first especially since we didn’t know what to expect” sophomore Mia Graham said.

Although Graham and Paul did not finish where they had hoped they would have in the state tournament, it was the experience that they gained that was most beneficial for the duo.

“It was really good to see what we need to expect in the next two years,” Paul said. “It helped show what we need to do to improve on.”

As this season came to an end the girls are already looking forward to a promising 2013 season. The team is returning with four of their top five players, including the doubles team who played in the state tournament in 2012.