VCHS HI-LINER TENNIS
The Hi-Liners returned a 2021 girls tennis team that only had 28 individual career wins combined.
To put that in perspective, Hi-Liner tennis greats Clarissa Olson and Reagan Ingstad both had seasons where they had more than 28 wins by themselves. To say the Hi-Liner girls tennis team was young and inexperienced was an understatement. The goal was to be home for a play-in match, qualify for regionals, and try to make a run at regionals.
Our team surprised everyone. We tied for 4th place in the EDC knocking off Grand Forks Red River for the first time in over 20 years and defeating the #2 team in the EDC, Grand Forks Central, in the process. In the regional tournament, we avenged a loss to Fargo North in the first round and then state qualified with another win over Red River. It was a surreal run by a great group of young women.
On the individuals side, we made a huge push as well. Abby Martineck(9) made a state qualifier, Abby Redfearn(9) lost in three sets to the #8 seed, and Maisie Leick(12) and Kailee Nielson(7) lost a doubles state qualifier in three sets. Breck Sufficool(9) and Olivia Ingstad(10) took 2nd in the EDC tournament and followed that up by going 4-1 at the state tournament taking 5th place at state. Breck and Olivia earned All-EDC honors and made the AllState team. Maisie was named Co-EDC Senior Athlete of the Year.
2022 Preview:
We bring back everyone from our state squad last year except Maisie Leick. Our starters will feature one junior in Olivia, four sophomores, and two eighth graders. We are still extremely young. This season will be tough for our
team as the entire EDC brings almost everyone back and is chalk full of seniors. We have to continue to play the role of the underdog and to grind matches by playing one point at a time.
We believe and live out our tennis pillars of ACES: positive Attitude, communication, 100 percent Effort and Sportsmanship.
We can’t control our opponent, the weather, winning or losing, or even how well we play on a given day. We can control our attitude, communication, effort, and sportsmanship. If we focus on the things we can control, practices will maximize productivity and improvement. We then give ourselves the best opportunities to play at our highest level in matches. If we do this, the score will take care of itself.
In doubles, Breck and Olivia will be playing together at #1. After that, the coaches will mix and match until we find something that works and preps us for the post-season. Breck, Olivia, Abby M, Abby R, and Kailee will be playing singles with Georgia Zaun(8) rounding out the line-up after winning seven varsity matches as a 7th grader. In the mix for the last starting spot are Alyssa Thomsen(10), Ella Olson(10), Trinity Nelson(12), and Faith Orner(12).
Look for the Hi-Liners to improve again this season. The players have great attitudes, love their team, and love coming to practice. They are receiving individual attention with a robust coaching staff consisting of head coach Matt Nielson, JV coach Sara Aberle, and JH coach Hannah Aberle along with volunteer coaches Erik Kringlie, Susan Kringlie, and Jamie LaFramboise. We are all excited to see where our team can go this season.
I LOVE being a HiLiner Coach!