De Pere Girls Tennis 2009 was a rousing success.
We increased our team roster this year from 34 to 42, and added some phenomenal freshman, energetic sophomores to our strong base of junior and seniors.
Over the past few years we as coaches have been working to create a team feel. We have decided to separate the team into 3 levels…JV Reserve, JV and Varsity. It allows for the athletes who are beginning or just developing in the game to practice, improve and compete primarily thru intramurals, in addition to a few JV matches throughout the season. The JV is the 10 girls who have either been on the team or are new to the team, but have abilities that warrant competitive play throughout the season, and at special JV tournaments.
Finally the Varsity includes the top ten girls on the team, they participate in all meets, including the conference tournaments, sub-sectionals and sectionals. We again had the opportunity for team building throughout the season, and put the girls into tribes across grade levels and team levels to help build a team focus.
This was a year of many firsts…
- FRCC East Divisional Champions at 6-0 in the conference dual season!
- The Varsity continued this success to place 3rd in the FRCC Conference Tournament.
- Again, the Varsity entered the WIAA Division 1 Sub-Sectional with Seeds at all Flights.
- All 10 Varsity players advanced to the 2009 WIAA Division 1 sectional with more points than any other team from the sub-sectional for the first time in De Pere Tennis history.
Sectional Finals-
Singles: Florencia @ 3 Singles finished 1st
Emily @ 4 Singles finished 4th
Doubles: Lisa and Tera @ 1 Doubles finished 1st
Devon and Rachel @ 2 Doubles finished 1st
Bre and Katrina @ 3 Doubles finished 2nd
To add to this success we competed strong at the sectional and for the first time in De Pere Girls Tennis history, the varsity earned the runner-up position nearly overtaking the 1st place team but came up short by one point.
The girls had an emotional, but successful day, and we even had sectional champions when the day was done. Would the following girls stand Sami I. and Kelly C. led the varsity at #1 and #2 Singles. Senior Florencia G. who earned a Sectional 1st place finish at #3 singles, Emily K. who earned a 2nd place finish at #4 singles. Juniors, Bre F. and Katrina G., at #3 Doubles earned 2nd place finish at sectionals as well as all conference honors. Freshman Rachel N. and Devon P. not only earned All- Conference honors, a 1st place spot at #2 Doubles, but also were the first #2 doubles team from De Pere to qualify for the WIAA state tournament with a 26 and 2 record.
Our captain Tera G. and Lisa G. also earned 1st place at the sectional and advanced to the state tournament. For Lisa, this was the 2nd year in a row and for Tera this was a move from singles to doubles in her senior year, which it paid off, because she and Lisa made a strong pair and learned a lot from their partnership.