Girls Tennis
By Sports Editor Russ Hodges
ROCHELLE — The Rochelle Lady Hub tennis team revamped this season with a fresh mix of junior and senior players, even though they lost almost all of their varsity starters from the previous campaign. Although the program will have to fill nearly every starting varsity spot once more, head coach Lizzie Cartwright is hopeful about the underclassmen who will be able to return the following fall.
With victories over Kaneland, DeKalb, Sterling, and Newman Central Catholic, Rochelle concluded with a 4-12 overall record and a 1-4 record in the Interstate 8 Conference. The Lady Hubs won multiple awards at their home competition, where Rochelle finished second as a team, and fielded two medalists at the Harlem Invitational. The best tennis was performed by the Lady Hubs at thefinishing the IHSA 1A Rochelle Sectional in third place overall.
“I noticed a significant improvement in their communication this season,” Cartwright remarked. During matches, I witnessed a lot of positive conversation and tenacity from both solo players and doubles teams. The sportsmanship of this group of girls was excellent. They exuded poise both on and off the court, and I felt they did a great job representing Rochelle this season.
To fill openings and produce outcomes at the varsity level, Rochelle mainly relied on its senior class. Even though the Lady Hubs finished the season with four wins, they were only shut out three times and came within one point of defeating Belvidere, Mendota, and Streator. Additionally, As the program’s third state-qualifying pair since the pandemic, Rochelle witnessed two seniors, Catherine Williams and Erin Murphy, earn a spot in the state tournament.
“These seniors played a significant role in our team’s victories this season and filled a lot of varsity positions,” Cartwright said. They brought their wonderful personality to practice, and the underclassmen found them to be very personable. Seeing so many new females attempting to learn tennis has been fantastic. Coach Paisley and I have put a lot of effort into helping the players grow, and we are glad to have them. Having a large senior class this year was pleasant.
After this season, seven senior starters will leave the program, including Williams and Murphy.
In addition, Rochelle will lose Yaretzi Villalobos in singles and Abby Metzger, Lauren Dyer, Natalie Wagner, and Sydney Carmichael in doubles. The Lady Hubs are eligible to return next autumn, led by Junior Merit Namaste-Rose, who received an Interstate 8 All-Conference Honorable Mention in singles this season. Cartwright added that sophomores Vivian Novak and Abby Losoya, as well as junior Jaicee Ramos, might become varsity contributors the following season.
We had a couple more underclassmen this year than we’ve had in previous years, which excites me, Cartwright said. “We’re already considering where to place some of our players for the upcoming season. We have a better notion of what we can do in the upcoming season. Abby consistently puts forth her best effort and pays close attention to the lessons we are teaching her. She played doubles a lot with Vivian, and they might form a doubles team. Vivian has good volleys and puts shots in the net, and Abby is fairly speedy.
