With as balanced of a roster as they’ve had in years, the Parsons Vikings are set for another girls tennis season this fall.
“We’ve got 11 girls this year — we’d love to have 12 — but we’ve got eight that can play varsity, which is really nice,” Parsons head coach Jane Posch said. “We’ve got beginners as well and there’s so much potential with them.”
Kadence Ball and Laila Haviland, both of whom made the state tournament a year ago, join forces as the Vikings’ top doubles duo.
“I want to start playing them as a doubles team,” Posch said. “Laila has got a really good serve. She’s consistent with her ground strokes. She played really good doubles last year with Heidi. And we needed to pull somebody up to play with Kadence. Laila has more experience in doubles. Kadence will probably rotate into some singles this year as well.”
Heidi Shultz, entering her sophomore year, takes the mantle as the No. 1 singles player for Parsons.
“Heidi’s got the speed and she can cover the court,” Posch said. “She needs to work on her consistency. But when she gets that down, she’s going to be really tough.”
Tenlee Kennett, a freshman, will also be a crucial player in the lineup for Parsons.
“Tenlee has been playing tennis for several years now,” Posch said. “She’s adamant about becoming a good player. She is stepping into the mix with the best of the team.”
Posch expects to consistently rotate lineups throughout the year to find the best formula.
“We may be rotating a lot of girls back and forth. Class 4A is going to be a lot tougher this year — there’s more schools coming in. So we’ll have to play with our lineups to figure out where our focus is.”
The SEK League is as balanced as it’s been, with Independence, Chanute, Parsons and Fort Scott all viable candidates to win a league title.
“Independence is going to have a pretty good top five and Chanute is going to be deep,” Posch said. “They’ve got almost everybody back. So they’ll surprise some people. Fort Scott has two good singles players. I know we’re in the top three in the league. We’ll just play it out and see how it goes.”
Parsons will begin its season on Saturday at a tournament in Independence.
