Hubs varsity tennis coach Kristy Eckardt sees an opportunity for the Rochelle boys to take a step forward this season, and Eckardt will be looking for a handful of returning swingers to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
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ROCHELLE — Hubs varsity tennis coach Kristy Eckardt sees an opportunity for the Rochelle boys to take a step forward this season, and Eckardt will be looking for a handful of returning swingers to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
“I’m glad to be back,” Eckardt said. “We were lucky to get outside during our first week of practice… We had a lot of new players who hadn’t played much last year so we were focusing on improving from the first day. We were in a lot of matches that we wouldn’t have been in earlier in the season.”
Rochelle will begin its season at the Rock Island Invitational on Saturday, March 24. While the Hubs weren’t able to log many team victories last season, Eckardt said the purple and white will be aiming to take advantage of weaker competition this spring, as many seniors from rival schools have graduated since last season concluded.
“Consistency will be a huge thing for us,” Eckardt said. “Staying in matches and points and battling for wins that we haven’t gotten before.”
Senior Noah Griffith will spearhead the charge in singles play after reaching state for the second time in two years last season. Griffith won nearly 30 matches in 2017, and he will be vying for his third state appearance this spring alongside senior Kevin Zheng, who is also expected to play singles this season. Zheng will be attempting for his first state bid.
“We’d like to get some more wins on the board,” Eckardt said. “A lot of seniors on other teams graduated last year and I think we’ll keep getting better… Kevin can really get over the hump this year since he had a lot of close matches last year. Noah already looks great so I think we can be solid in getting two wins at singles during each match.”
Juniors Hector Garcia and Juan Montemayor are returning in doubles play after both players took the court in doubles last season. Senior Jesus Nava is expected to suit up after missing the 2017 season due to injury, but Eckardt said the remainder of Rochelle’s doubles lineup remains to be seen.
“Jesus is a good leader and a good doubles player,” Eckardt said. “Juan and Hector were a solid team last year considering it was only their second season playing tennis together… I’m interested to see how the rest of our lineup shakes out and who’s going to step up and fill our remaining spots.”
