With last year’s top five performers back in the lineup, the Carthage girls tennis team has the expectations set high this fall.
Coach Mark Lingenfelter’s Tigers will be led by seniors Kianna Yates, Daniela Marquez, Anayansi Lopez, Katie Barton and Beverly Garcia. The five, in that order, were Carthage’s top players a season ago.
“We are excited for this year’s season,” Lingenfelter said. “We’ve got a huge group of seniors for a tennis team (12), and I have coached most of them since their freshman year. We’ve got 40 student-athletes on the team this year, which is a big group. I’m excited to see how they progress in their abilities as the season begins.”
With so much varsity experience back on the court, Lingenfelter is confident the Tigers can improve upon last year’s 3-9 conference record.
“I believe we will finish closer to .500 this year after going 3-9 last season,” he said. “Many teams we played last year were senior heavy like we are this year. In the COC, nothing is given away, everything is earned, so we aren’t expecting any extra wins to be easy.”
Lingenfelter noted there’s a lot to like about his team.
“We’ve got a great group of student-athletes in general,” he said. “They get along, they work hard, and they’re coachable. We’ll reach our goals if we stay positive, stay focused and don’t forget to have some fun while we’re out there.”
Lingenfelter added he hopes to see continued progress throughout the season.
“In tennis, there are so many aspects to the game that you’re always trying to improve on,” he said. “We really need to continue to improve in every area, for every player. All players have areas of strengths in regard to their game, and areas of weakness that they need to address as the season begins. General areas where the whole team could be better as of now include serving and being consistent.”
Carthage hosts Monett on Aug. 29.
