ROCHELLE — The Rochelle Hub varsity tennis team was forced to retool its roster after losing 14 seniors from the 2023 season. With several newcomers joining the program and new faces competing at the varsity level, head coach Kristy Eckardt said she was happy with the progress made this spring and is optimistic about the program’s future heading into the offseason.

Rochelle finished with a 6-11 overall record and a 1-4 record in the Interstate 8 Conference this season. The Hubs defeated Kaneland and locked down nonconference victories against Rockford Lutheran, St. Bede, Dixon, Harlem and Mendota. Rochelle tied for second place in both the Hub Varsity Invitational and the Hubs Dubs Tournament this season.

“I was very pleased with how we did this season,” Eckardt said. “You never know what to expect when you lose as many kids as we did from last season, but given the amount of new kids we had come out and the talent we had, our kids stepped into those spots left by our seniors from last year. They came in ready to work and they went into every match knowing they could win.”

The Hubs finished fourth in both the Interstate 8 Conference tournament and the IHSA 1A Rochelle Sectional this season. Rochelle will lose five seniors including four-year tennis players Parker Lenkaitis and Jimmy Chavez, who took on leadership roles in doubles and singles for the varsity team this season. Other varsity seniors set to depart include Austin Raleigh, Eli Luxton and Alex McBride, who each took on varsity doubles roles for the Hubs during the 2024 season.

“Our singles players were strong this season,” Eckardt said. “Jimmy worked so hard over the summer and the offseason to get better and a lot of coaches commented on how much better he became and how he was able to hang with some really talented kids. A lot of our younger kids, especially our freshmen, pushed each other to reach higher levels and some of them were thrown into varsity matches at different times… They showed a lot of potential for next season.”

Rochelle will have a trio of sophomores eligible to return to the varsity team next season. Those sophomores are Caleb Mortensen and Philip Winters as well as Mark Green, who has now played two years of varsity tennis for the Hubs. Freshmen Connor Hunley, Samuel Sergeant and Noah McKinney are three players to watch as Rochelle continues to build for next season.

“Mark will be going on his third year at the varsity level and we’ll be looking for him to lead quite a bit,” Eckardt said. “Connor, Noah and Sam kept getting better and better and I think those guys will bring their friends along with them… There are a lot of teams that are in the situation we were in last year in terms of graduating a lot of seniors, so I think we’ll have a chance to step up and win more conference matches. Our main goal will be to get that conference title back.”