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Numbers and expectations growing for girls tennis program

News Photo by Jonny Zawacki The Alpena girls tennis team left to right includes: back: Giselle King, Taylor Belanger, Katie Nicholson, Claire Butch, Gwen Denbleyker, Rachel Hart and Lara King; front: Breanne Kieliszewski, Brynna Smith, Marissa Centala and Amelia Berles. Missing from the photo is Emeline Hanna.

The numbers continue to grow for the Alpena High girls tennis program. For the first time is five years, the Wildcats will have a JV team along with their varsity roster which will make for more opportunities and competitiveness amongst the team.

Despite losing all four singles players to graduation, Alpena has more depth this year and because of the numbers, the Wildcats and coach Charlie Giordano have more options on the court.

“We lost our four top end seniors from last year so I had to replace a lot of singles players, which can be scary. We have a good base for our doubles teams and we have some veterans back there with some experience which is nice,” Giordano said. “We also have a few good freshman players which can be rare sometimes, but the girls are starting to play more in the offseason and coming up with a lot more skills and our team gets filled in a lot more quicker than it used to, which is great.”

Seventeen girls make up the program this year, including 12 which are on the varsity roster. Freshman Gwen Denbleyker will jump into the role of playing No. 1 singles for the Wildcats. Junior Brynna Smith will play No. 2 singles, Emeline Hanna will be the team’s No. 3 singles player and senior Claire Butch will compete at No. 4 singles.

The No. 1 doubles team of senior Breanne Kieliszewski and junior Taylor Belanger with be relied on heavily, along with the No. 2 doubles team of seniors Katie Nicholson and Marissa Centala. Juniors Lara and Giselle King will compete at No. 3 doubles and sophomore Rachel Hart and freshman Amelia Berles round off the Wildcats at No. 4 doubles.

“We have a bunch of new players on the team this year. The nice thing is, back in the day when we had new players, we had to teach them how to play, but now the new players are coming with skill and ability, now we’re just helping them fit into our formation of what we want and try to teach them some new stuff,” Giordano said. “It’s exciting to have a JV team this year and we have new coaches that are here to help which makes for more one-on-one attention, more knowledge and it’s just huge to be able to have enough kids and have the right kind of coaches. It helps our program grow tremendously.”

The Wildcats got off to a great start to the 2018 season as they picked up two victories in the season opener, defeating Boyne City 5-3 and shutting out Grayling 8-0.

Despite some lineup changes and shifting roles, the Wildcats are focused on continuing to get better each and every time out.

“I always look for personal growth throughout the course of the season. I’m looking forward to a lot of success. A lot of girls have a lot of expectations. We don’t always look at results, but some of the girls have their eyes set on doing some things this season,” Giordano said. “I don’t like to put extra pressure on them to try and get them to win. You do the right things for the right reasons and if you win that’s a bonus. It’s going to be a lot of fun this season.”

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