ROCHELLE — Kristy Eckardt hasn’t been more confident in the Rochelle Hub varsity tennis team than this season. With all eight starters across singles and doubles returning this spring, Eckardt and the Hubs are looking to secure one of their best seasons in recent history.

“I’m really pumped and I think this will be the most solid team I’ve had,” Eckardt said. “We didn’t lose any seniors from last season and we have all of our players back. We also have a good number of new players this season which is huge for us. Our new players are catching on really fast and with our returning players, I think we'll be really strong from top to bottom this season.”

Practices are underway at the RTHS tennis courts, with the Hubs scheduled to open their season at the Rock Island Invitational on Saturday, March 26. Rochelle will look to build on a 5-11 season in which the Hubs took third in the Interstate 8 and finished fourth in the IHSA 1A Geneseo Sectional. Rochelle will face Rockford East on the road Monday, March 28.

“Our expectations will continue to be high and I think we have the depth to finish first or second in the conference this season,” Eckardt said. “We want to win more conference matches this season because those points factor into the final conference title. The sky's the limit for us. I think our kids have the basic concepts down, especially during doubles play, and I’m hoping our kids can continue building on that. We don’t want our opponents to be controlling the points.”

The Hubs will have multiple seniors with varsity experience back in action this spring including Peter Forsberg, Devansh Patel and Jason Zheng, who all competed in doubles last season. Junior David Wanner and senior Alex Gilbert return after finishing as the team’s leading singles players last season, while junior John Green and sophomore Parker Lenkaitis are also back in the fold after cracking the varsity doubles lineup as first-year tennis athletes last season.

“We’re still working out our lineup,” Eckardt said. “David and Alex were great singles players for us last year, but with our strengths this season, it may be possible for David to play some doubles. Jason’s always been a strong singles player so he may see some time there. There are a lot of combinations that I want to experiment with as we continue to practice outside. We have very strong and confident doubles players and Peter put a lot of work in over the summer.”