By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
With 15 consecutive state tennis titles, including the past three in Class 3-2-1A, Wichita Collegiate is almost a lock to take home one of the three state plaques each October. Ellsworth High School tennis coach Eric Anderson knows that. His squad finished fourth at last year's state tournament, just two points shy of the third-place trophy. Anderson hopes an unprecedented show of success this fall leads to a state trophy in Wichita this weekend.
"We're kind of lucky," he said. "We had a young team last year with three freshmen, two sophomores, and a junior. All of them qualified for the state meet, five of those six placed at the state meet, and all six are back this year."
The Lady Bearcats were 101-7 in combined matches this year heading into regional action Friday and Saturday in Wakeeney. The girls posted a combined 15-2 record there to bring home a pair of regional titles and qualify all six members to state. Ellsworth more than doubled-up second-place Hoisington 22-10.
One big move from last year was switching sophomore Hannah Vague to singles and junior Felis De La Cruz to doubles. Last year, Vague teamed up with senior Elena Jundt to place 11th at state as a doubles team. This year, Vague is 28-4 as a singles player and De La Cruz and Jundt are 27-4 on the doubles side.
"We talked in the offseason, over the summer, that we really wanted to work hard at getting all six of our girls to place at the state meet so we had a chance to bring home one of them state plaques," Anderson said. "Last year, we were two points short of bringing home a third-place plaque. They really came to me and said we needed to change things up a little bit and we ran with it."
The staples are also back. Junior Inarie Rippert and sophomore Reygan Coonrod finished second at state last year and take a perfect 31-0 record to Wichita this year. Sophomore Karli Haase placed 10th at state last year and takes a 30-1 record to state this year. Anderson said the program starts with a strong foundation.
"We added junior high tennis here, which has been a great feeder program for our girls' team," he said. "They go right from the spring, right through the summer program, right into girls' tennis. It's just been awesome the last few years to see our girls progress. We have some freshmen girls this year who, in previous years, probably could have made it to our varsity team."
This group of Lady Bearcats has won 17 of its 18 varsity tournaments dating back to last year, and the girls have now won 323 matches compared to just 49 losses over the past two seasons. This year's Class 3-2-1A State Tennis Championships begin Friday in Wichita.