Top: Head Coach John Muus fired up to his players at a recently held match against Denfeld. The Vikings’ team is mostly young, but they gained a ton of experience this year. Cecelia Schnobrich, left, and Brenna Hay in action against Duluth Denfeld. Schnobrich won in three sets.
The 2011 Cook County High School girls’ varsity tennis team finished up an eventful season this past week, participating in the Individual Sub- Section Tournament at Virginia, MN on October 12. As in all their matches this season, the young and inexperienced Viking tennis players were just trying to show improvement and gain some much needed match-play experience, which they did.
On home court on Wednesday, Oct. 5 the Vikings were defeated by Duluth Denfeld, 6-1. Junior captain Cecilia Schnobrich was the lone winner for the Vikings, winning in three sets.
The 10 varsity tennis players who finished the season: junior captain Cecilia Schnobrich, freshmen Brenna Hay, Kaylee Cronberg and Mikala Schliep, eighth-grader Morgan Weyrens-Welch and seventh-graders Marin Hay, Alyssa Martinson, Melanie Smith, Hannah and Sarah Toftey. Of these 10, eight were first-year players, including the five seventh graders.
Coach John Muus was very proud of the courage shown by this young team as they competed against much older and more experienced teams. It was nice to have enough players to field a full squad (10 – 4 singles and 3 doubles) at their matches this season.
Going into this season, the Viking girls’ tennis team expected to have a more experienced nucleus (six) of players returning from last season, but for various reasons only two, Cecilia Schnobrich and Brenna Hay, were able to finish this season.
Coach Muus was very happy with the large number of new players and the dedication and work ethic they displayed during practices. “I enjoyed this season, despite our 0-8 record, because these girls wanted to do what was necessary to improve, and they did. Our goal was to improve each day and not be concerned about match results. Their enthusiasm made me want to put in more time and effort, as a coach, to help them progress as quickly as possible,” said Muus.
Coach Muus sees a bright future for this tennis program if these girls stay with it and continue to improve their tennis skills. The girls’ varsity tennis program hopes to continue adding more players each year, building some depth, and, hopefully, gaining enough players in the future to field a junior varsity team.
“It’s nice to have a school varsity tennis program that our younger junior tennis players can look forward to participating in. Girls and boys of all ages are encouraged to take advantage of the various tennis programs available in our community, including the varsity tennis programs,” said Muus.
Go Vikes!
Leave a Reply