Feature Photo By: Amor-Leigh Wilson – Senior Cheyanne Boe brushes the water off the court. Boe has played for the varsity all her four years.
A new season for the Rangeview girls’ tennis team means a completely new slate for these ladies.
The Rangeview girls’ tennis team has a new coaching staff and is completely full of new players with only three returning varsity players from last year.
Last season, the girls had what many would agree was a great season — they won EMAC and had their number four doubles team place 3rd at regionals.
Despite the team now being full of players who are unfamiliar with the proper way to hold a racquet, Head Coach Jake Larson is eager to teach the new players. Larson has hopes of winning EMAC this year and hopefully send some singles and double teams to the state championship this year.
According to senior and returning varsity player Cheyanne Boe, “I feel Larson is very excited to be head coach and step up to the plate. Him coaching the boys (tennis team) has really helped him become a better coach for us.”
Last season, Larson was the assist coach alongside Head Coach Bradley Emmer. Aside from coaching the boys tennis team in the fall, Larson also plays tennis in an adult league. This provides the girls with a coach who has played the game of tennis.
In addition to having to adjust to a new coach, the ladies also have to adjust to playing as a team, despite not even knowing each other’s names.
“This season will be tough because the girls this year don’t really know anyone that was on the team last year,” Boe said. “As a team we don’t really know each other and we have a lot of bonding to do.”
Some of the girls still have high hopes this season — a main hope being winning EMACs which they have done five years in a row.
“It will be interesting to see who gets placed where… and see how [the girls on the team] compete,” said senior Mackenzie Bell. “We lost almost all of [the varsity players] from last year so I am curious to see where it goes.”
Bell as well as Boe hope to qualify for state this season and the only way for the team to get there is if they are placed at a higher level going into regionals. In order for the ladies to rank at a high level, they must have a high ranking in EMAC — meaning the ladies have to win as a team and not as individuals.
According to senior Jada Forte, “I think we are going to struggle this year because we play as more individuals rather than a team and a whole. Individually we are still pretty good, but it won’t matter if we are not good as a team.”
The ladies’ biggest competitor has always been Vista Peak High School, as every year the school only loses to Rangeview and it is normally an extremely close match — the ladies last year won by only one point.
Despite the stress this season has introduced to the ladies, they are still players that want to mainly focus on having fun and improving on technique.
Junior Farida Yusupova said simply, “I want to get better and have fun.”
The ladies have their first match Tuesday, March 19th against Prairie View here at Rangeview starting at 3:30pm.
Prairie View is apart of EMAC, and winning/losing will set the tone for how the ladies will compete for the remainder of the season. To find out more about the Rangeview girls tennis team click here.
