A relatively young and inexperienced (no seniors) Columbia High Bruins girls tennis team opened its WIAA Class 1A 15-event schedule by playing three matches in 10 days in March.
The eight-member Bruins squad has a bit more grueling schedule this week with four matches in three days. An April 10 Bruin nonleague home match versus the Sherman County High Huskies was followed by Tuesday’s Trico League contest against the Three Rivers Christian High Eagles (result was after the printed edition deadline).
The Bruins (2-1), guided by seventh-year Coach Tammy Carter, play their next match Thursday on the road at 3:30 p.m. against the Montesano High Bulldogs. The Bruins won their last match at home, 3-2, over the Eatonville High Cruisers on March 30.
“The season has been going pretty good and we have some good girls that want to learn,” said Carter. “We lost one match (5-0) to Stevenson, which has a very good team. They have a pretty experienced team, and they have three players that have been playing since the fourth grade, so that kind of helps them out a lot.”
The Bruin squad is led by returning varsity players Juliet Perez (2-0 singles) and Claire Hayes (2-1 singles), who are both juniors. The team also includes juniors Josephine Beck, Lynette Black, Audrey Coyner, Evelin Gonzalez, Danica Sanchez, and Sarah VonRueden. Gonzalez and VonRueden are playing tennis for the first time in their Columbia High School careers.
“This is a good group of kids, and we also have some new people, which is good, too, and we get to see how much they improve and so far, their progress has been just amazing,” said Carter.
The Bruins probably don’t have anyone who will qualify for the state tournament this year, but they do have a number of players who will likely compete in the district tourney.
“It’s going to be hard to get past Stevenson (2-1 record), because there’s only one singles and one doubles team from our league that goes to state,” said Carter. “We’ll try and give it our best shot though, and as long as everyone has smiles on their faces, then that’s what I’m really hoping for. We’ll go to districts with our two singles teams, and one doubles team, and we’ll see what happens there.”
Black, Beck, Coyner, Hayes and Perez qualified for the 2022 district tournament and they’ll each be focusing on returning to the postseason again in May. All five players are in their third year on the tennis team. Beck and Coyner played doubles last year at district. Black, Perez and Hayes each played in the singles division at districts.
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