It’s fall again, which means tennis is back in full swing. With the last match of the regular season taking place on Thursday, September 30th their record sits at 5-5 overall and 5-3 in conference play. Sections are set to start on Thursday, October 7th  where the team will be the number two seed. Head coach Paul Norstead says he expects to have a bye in the first round and play Lake City in the semis on Monday, October 11th. If the team plays Lake City in the semis it would be the third time they face the Tigers this season. Paul says “we’ve beaten Lake City twice, scores of 5-2 both times. It is always tough playing a team three times, but I expect us to play well and advance to the finals…”. In the finals he thinks they will most likely be playing Rochester Lourdes.

On Tuesday, September 28th the varsity team pulled off an impressive win over the Cotter Ramblers, with a score of 7-0, making for a sweep. Hannah Hjellming played at #1 singles, Lauren Ritz played at #2 singles, Olivia Villarreal at #3 singles, Josie Sjoquist at #4 singles. Morgan Kasa and Claire Dickie at #1 doubles, Kaytlyn Otte and Allison Hughes at #2 doubles, and Kaylee and Cami Anderson at #3 doubles. All of the individuals and teams won, which came together to pull off the sweep.

A tennis match consists of points that make up a set and the sets make up the game. In order to get a point, a player must win 4 rallies. But when you win a rally it is not said 1 to 0 or whatever the score is. The first rally a player wins moves them from the score of Love to 15 and after 15 is 30 after 30 is 40, then once they score after being at 40 they win a point. Then they have to be the first player to get to 6 points. Once a player gets 6 points they win the set. One player/team must be the first to win two sets and after they win two sets they win the game and it is over.

The sweep against Cotter was very exciting and after the messed-up COVID season last year, Paul and his team were excited to get back to a more regular season this year and hopefully make it to the state tournament which didn’t take place last year due to COVID. They are also excited to have individual tournaments this year which also didn’t take place last year due to COVID. With Paul being in his 26th year as a tennis coach and 23rd year as head coach he is very excited to play in the 2021 postseason and have everything somewhat back to normal.