Edgewood girls tennis building toward the future
By Skip Weaver
Contributing writer
TRENTON – The Edgewood girls tennis team may not have a winning record, but that’s not indicative of the growth the program has experienced this season, according to third-year coach Kris Barnes.
He said what the players lack in experience they make up for in hard work and competitiveness.
“I think this year is one of those growing years where we’re doing pretty well,” Barnes said. “We’ve had a lot of closer matches. I know that doesn’t always show up on the scoreboard, but we’re definitely more competitive than previous years so that’s exciting to see.
“And it definitely makes me more optimistic for the future and where we’re heading,” he added.
There are five seniors on the team this year – Harley Abrams, Kaylin Chappelow, Payton Foley, Lilian Kiniyalocts and Claire Lenos – and four of them are first-year players, Barnes said. The rest of the team is made up of juniors Lyvia Grahovac and Sophia Muncy, sophomores Kelsey Brown, Alaina Harris, Isabella Harvey, Jordynn Morris, Adyson Powell and Nila Willen, and freshman Allie Wells. Those numbers have helped the Cougars to field a full junior varsity and varsity squad for the last several seasons.
“Our doubles teams have the best records,” Barnes said, referring to Lilian Kiniyalocts and Payton Foley (3-6 record) at first doubles and Harley Abrams and Nila Willen (4-4) at second doubles. “Lilian has been in the program since she was a freshman and Payton is one of those first-year players but they have played really well together.
“Having those two together has worked out well,” he continued. “A lot of their matches – even the ones they haven’t won – have been close especially in league matches so that makes me excited going into the league tournament because I think we have been able to correct some of the errors from those matches and I think at league they can do pretty well.”
Abrams, a senior, and Willen, a sophomore, are both playing tennis for the first time.
“Those two are really starting to gel together,” Barnes said. “They had a really good match against Talawanda where they lost the first set 6-0, but won the next two sets for the come-from-behind win.
“It used to be mentally we couldn’t come back from that, but now it’s like we’re always coming back,” he continued. “That’s the mental toughness we have been working on in practice.”
As the season is winding down, Edgewood heads into the Southwestern Buckeye League tournament next week pushing to be the best they can be.
“I think the girls will surprise themselves with how they do. I really do,” Barnes said. “Bellbrook is definitely the team to beat. They’re undefeated in the league, but after them it’s kind of more wide open. Everyone has kind of been beating up on each other with some of our scores being like 4-1 and 3-2.
“There are certain teams we match up with at singles and others we match up well with at doubles so I think it will be interesting,” he continued. “I’ve been telling the girls if you show up, have a good attitude, work hard and just focus on the task at hand good things will happen.”
With such a young roster, Barnes believes the program has a bright future.
“We have a nice core of sophomores which is our biggest group,” he said. “They are showing up and working hard and they are always putting in the extra work and that will go a long way toward helping us grow and improve.”
