Girls tennis gets back into the swing of things

The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls tennis team hopes to bounce back after a season in which they went 1-18 last year. A huge factor will be the return of some top returning players with a full season of varsity tennis under their belts.

“Some key returning players are Lexi Norrgard and Kylie McKeon at No. 1 doubles, and Michelle Jokinen at No. 1 singles,” said Cloquet coach Derek Johnson. “Lauren Maslowski and Addie Loeb both will play some singles and doubles throughout the year.”

The Lumberjacks also will have some new players who are expecting to play big roles on the team this year.

“Marina Dostal, Winnie Benjamin Hall and Lydia Stone are all second-year sophomores who saw limited varsity time last year; they will be looked upon to step up this year,” Johnson said. “Their game and consistency have improved significantly since last season.”

With more experience comes higher expectations. Johnson is excited about the opportunities that lay ahead for the ’Jacks.

“We have a good group of seniors who we will lean on day in and day out, and then we have a lot of sophomores who have improved their game,” he said. “It’s about getting those sophomores varsity experience. We are better now then we were a year ago and will continue to get better.”

The Lumberjacks have 23 players — more than last year’s team, which featured 17 players.

“Our team consists of Cloquet-Esko-Carlton with only one player from Esko and one player from Carlton,” said Johnson. “I would love to improve that number and get more girls involved from those schools.”

While the first week of practice went well for the ’Jacks, they struggled on Monday — losing three matches to Aitkin, Mora and North Branch.

“Our first week of practice went really well and I was very pleased to see the girls were eager to get back into the “swing” of things,” said Johnson. “We had three matches Monday that didn’t go the way we wanted record-wise, but I saw a lot of great things from our team. Singles players started off slow but settled down and got more consistent. The doubles players moved together well and had good communication.”

He explained that Monday featured tournament-style matches where the No. 1 doubles team of Lexi Norrgard and Kylie McKeon were runner-up at that position. The No. 3 doubles team of Carlee Maslowski and Alexys Serfin were champs at that position.

“Each doubles team got medals which were well-deserved,” he said. “We have nine more matches in the next week. We are going to have to recover quickly and bring our best game each day.”