Mingus Union High School’s girl tennis team, a mix of seasoned veterans and green newcomers, is taking an approach appropriate for every player from the top to the bottom of its lineup this season.
Rather than focus efforts on improving each player’s deficiencies, Marauders head coach Andrea Meyer is instead harping on the strengths each already possesses. One team strength is the leadership that the five seniors bring to the table.
“This team is dichotomous. I’ve got five seniors, numbers one through five in the lineup, and eight freshmen, and then one player who’s a junior and an exchange student from Pakistan,” Meyer said. “It’s an unusual coaching situation, and so my seniors have really taken the lead in fostering camaraderie and fellowship and work ethic among the freshman girls, in very concrete ways.”
Before the season started, Meyer listened to a talk put on by Arizona State University men’s tennis coach Matt Hill. Hill spoke about the idea of developing players’ strengths instead of hammering out the flaws and changing their game. Given the short amount of time a high school tennis season lasts, its application with the Marauders [2-2] makes sense.
“Build on that strength, make sure that she knows that’s what she’s good at in a match so that she can plug into that and she understands who she is as a player on the court,” Meyer said.
The five seniors, Talon Whiteley, Pei-Wen Yang, Kylie Densmore, Chelsea Clark and Saya Federbush, are the top five players, in order, in the ladder. Freshman Anna Schreiber, described by Meyer as having natural ability, is in the No. 6 spot and performing well for a first-year player.
Schreiber came back to defeat her opponent at Lee Williams High School on March 5 in what proved to be pivotal in the team’s 6-3 win. She lost the first set 6-1 before returning to win the second set 6-0 and went on to win the tiebreaker.
“She has been, among a wonderful group of freshman, just stellar,” Meyer said. “She came out here with no skill and she’s got a lot of natural ability, she’s got good footwork, she leans into the ball.”
Whiteley, who remains undefeated in singles and doubles, is capable of executing some more technical shots than the rest. Wang, also undefeated in singles and doubles thus far, is one of the more aggressive and tenacious players.
Densmore is much improved from last season, Meyer said, and Clark is the team’s “go-getter.” Federbush, a second year player, has the strongest backhand volley. The variety of individual attributes from each of them boils down to one thing.
“I can rely on their consistent effort. Tennis is a game of errors, and so whoever puts the ball back across the net one more time in high school tennis is usually the winner,” Meyer said. “It’s not a case of hitting winning shots, it’s a case of simply outlasting the other person. So we just build consistency at practice.”
Meyer expressed her disappointment that senior Emma Williams, expected to be the No. 2, lost her eligibility after the Arizona Interscholastic Association twice denied her appeal. Williams had moved to Phoenix for a family job opportunity, but opted to return in order to pursue becoming a missionary nurse.
The team lost its season opener 5-4 against Moon Valley High School on Feb. 22. On March 1 it won at Agua Fria High School, 6-3; on March 5 it beat Lee Williams and then lost 5-4 to Dysart High School at home on Thursday, March 8.
Against Dysart, Clark was forced to retire from her singles match due to injury. Schreiber had a close loss, losing her second set 7-5 after dropping the first 6-3. Whiteley won 6-4 ; 6-1, Wang won 6-0 ; 6-1, Densmore lost 6-4 ; 6-4, and Federbush lost 6-2 ; 6-3.
The No. 1 doubles team of Whiteley and Wang won 8-4, the No. 2 team [Densmore and Clark] won 8-2 and the No. 3 team of Federbush and Schreiber lost 8-0.
Next up the team plays at 3:30 p.m. March 20 at Marcos de Niza High School, its final match before heading into Division II, Section II play.
