For the first time in 13 years, a girls varsity tennis player brought home a first place medal in a tournament. Those players were Ally Seevers and Miranda Kelly.

Girls varsity tennis brought home four medals, which was a major success for this year’s Columbus Invite. Finishing with #1 doubles first, #2 doubles second, #1 singles fourth, and #2 singles fifth, these results were significant for the team.

“We had four medalists,” varsity coach Jason Rodenberger said. “ In my 13 years here, we’ve never had a girl’s player finish first place in a tournament. So to have a doubles team as a first place medalist and second place medalist was huge.”

“It made me feel super excited and gave me some confidence for other invites,” senior Miranda Kelley said. Kelly was a part of the #1 doubles team who secured first place.

A win like this is not only huge for the organization in general, but for the team’s motivation for the game.

“It [the first place win] just made me get into tennis mode, instead of my other sports. It made me just think about tennis for once,” Kelly said.

With huge success in the doubles portion of the invite also came some singles success.

“I played #1 singles, which was an accomplishment for me because I was on JV last year,” junior Shayleigh Leeper-Martinez said. “It was a big step up for me.”

While it is important to win, there is also a huge mental aspect to the game of tennis that is important to maintain whilst playing. 

“Sometimes I’m very impatient and I just want to hit a winner every single time and it’s not always about that. You just have to play out the point,” Leeper-Martinez said.

The success in this invite will hopefully carry on for the rest of the season as the team prepares to play in multiple invites coming up at the end of the year. 

“My hopes are that all 10 members of our varsity team continue to work hard, push each other, so that those who are playing at our last few invites, Metro tournament, and State are playing at their peak level,” Rodenberger said.