Pratt High girls tennis coach Larry Kahmeyer admitted that he’s never had a girls tennis team start two freshmen at No. 1 and No. 2 singles. But, there’s a first time for everything.
Lauren McClain and Adele Loomis made their debut on the varsity tennis team Thursday, playing at the two singles positions and performing well.
“Lauren McClain and Adele Loomis, that’s their first varsity experience with both of them being freshmen,” Kahmeyer said. “I think they were nervous to begin with but once they got a few games under their belt, they were fine. For Lauren to go 3-0 and Adele to go 2-1 was phenomenal.”
Kahmeyer was quick to point out that the two girls earned the right to play at those positions on practice.
“We’ve had freshmen play on varsity before, but usually on doubles teams,” he said. “But both of those girls won those spots in challenges.”
At doubles, the Greenbacks had the No. 1 team of Cara Riney and Katie Hart and the No. 2 team of Samantha Kettering and Hannah Taylor. Riney and Hart went 1-2 against tough competition, while Kettering and Taylor went 2-0.
“Hannah Taylor and Sam Kettering had a really tough tiebreaker in their final match,” he said. “They were evenly matched with some other girls from Chaparral and ended up in a tiebreaker and never quit. Where last year they might have succumbed to the pressure, this year they rose up to challenge and held on to win an important match. That was the last match of the day, and had they lost that, we’d have gotten second.”
Kahmeyer said Riney and Hart ran into a pair of high-quality teams.
“Our No. 1 doubles team of Katie Hart and Cara Riney got an important win, but then ran into a couple of really good teams,” he said. “One of them is probably a state-qualifying team from Lyons, and the Chaparral team was very good also.”
