Point. Game. Match. That seems to be the norm for the girls’ tennis team as they’ve steamrolled through their season with a 9-1 record. Although a young team, the lady netters have been aided by the popularity of tennis this year, with so many girls showing up for tryouts that Coach Chris Madison was forced to make cuts. 

"Frankly, I am running a tennis factory. Year after year I am able to field a highly competitive team that is talented and confident enough to trounce the competition repeatedly. If these girls continue to work as hard as they’ve been working, regionals will be a breeze," said Madison. The chance to defend their regional championship title has everyone excited and focusing harder than ever.

"Coach has been raising the intensity of practices in anticipation of regionals, and it’s hard, but we do it because we know we can win this thing," said senior Camila Jones.

To achieve the level of success enjoyed during this season, Madison was forced to drill harder and longer after graduating five of the top six players. Using his skills as a Renaissance man, he was also able to recruit players away from other varsity sports. Top seeds Amanda Henneberg and Karly Gould left the varsity soccer program to focus on tennis. Sophomore Christina Sedney is doing both sports simultaneously this season, but has decided to focus solely on tennis next year.

"Christina is my girl. I’m so glad we both switched over to tennis because we’re an amazing doubles team and we help each other to play better," said senior Karly Gould.

Undefeated in their doubles play, Madison expects them to be a "sure thing" in regionals and states.

The team has an excellent chance of repeating as regional champs and as for the state tournament, it will be tough against three-time defending state champion Radford who is returning all of their key players from last year. 

"It’s a little bit daunting because we know how good they’re going to be, but then again this is what we’ve been training for all year so we should be ready for them," said senior Amanda Henneberg.

The ladies will be searching for their first state championship since a two-peat in 1987-88, having narrowly lost to Radford in the state finals last year.