Nicolet overcame obstacles to reach state
Three goals are ingrained in Nicolet tennis players and they never change.
Win conference. Win sectionals. Win team state.
“My school is kind of like win the state championship or bust,” Knights coach Tim Koppa said. “That’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but we want to be in there every year competing for it.”
Mission accomplished in that regard. Few schools can match Nicolet’s tenure as one of the state’s powerhouses of the sport. With this week's trip to the state tournament, the Knights extend the area’s longest streak of state team appearances to seven.
This year’s run is worth celebrating regardless of what happens.
“It hasn’t been a smooth ride,” Koppa said. “It’s been quite a journey actually.”
Considering the injuries, absences, lineup shifts and new faces the team has dealt with this season, that it finished ahead of rival Whitefish Bay to win the sectional was a major victory. The Knights will play Brookfield East in the Division 1 quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
The only constants between the lineup the Knights will field at state this year and what they had last season are the top two singles spots manned by junior Amy Drame and senior Angela Sendik.
Four seniors needed to be replaced, and Koppa did that by shuffling his lineup and bringing up a couple of junior varsity players.
Junior Emma Koppa moved up from No. 2 doubles to join junior Annabelle Crowley at the No. 1 spot. Senior Julia Bohlen moved from No. 3 singles to No. 2 doubles where she teamed with Ellie Berman, who played JV last season.
That left Nicolet with new faces at No. 3 and 4 singles and No. 3 doubles, and even after those spots were decided, injuries and absences for various reasons left the team unsettled for much of the season.
The biggest absence was Crowley. She missed the early part of the season with an ankle injury.
She was replaced by sophomore Miah Bohlen, who teamed with with Emma Koppa for a 13-1 record.
When Crowley returned at the end of August, Tim Koppa decided to drop Mia Bohlen to No. 3 doubles rather than disrupt the No. 2 doubles team.
How Miah Bohlen handled that situation as well as the leadership provided by this year's senior class were points Tim Koppa cited in discussing the team's success.
“She was really big about the whole situation,” said Julia Bohlen, Miah's sister.
“Obviously she was sad because she liked playing 1 doubles, but she was happy to do what was best for the team. She’s obviously been successful in that spot, and we’re all just grateful for her taking one for the team.”
It turned out that Nicolet needed just about every point it scored at sectionals. It finished six points ahead of Bay, a team it narrowly edged for second-place in the conference and lost, 4-3, in a dual early in the season.
At the sectional, however, Nicolet finished ahead of Bay at No. 1 and 2 singles and at all three doubles spots to advance to state.
The Knight are the No. 4 seed and should they advance would likely face topseeded Homestead in what would be their fourth semifinal appearance during this current streak. They were runner-up in 2011 and reached the semifinals in 2012, ’14 and ’16.
For Nicolet, it’s on to state. Again.