The Rolla girls tennis team finished their bounce back season this year with four more wins than last year. They made it to the district semi-final as a team even after they lost some of their top players.

“Our team lost a little bit of cohesion last year. We lost two of our seniors and we miss them dearly, but the sophomores and the freshman that we brought in this year have really just made their own place on the team and it’s been very fun and we’ve been very successful. We finished I think 3-8 last year and we finished this year 7-5 so that’s enough in itself,” junior Laura McCutcheon said.

It was a consensus that the team greatly improved.

“ Last year’s team I think won three matches. They lost their number one, and two other players from the top six and still managed to double their win total. And on top of that, we had some new girls really step in who hadn’t played. Really they just kind of gutted it out. They had five matches that they won 5-4. So that means on those days if anyone falls down and does a poor job we lose 4-5. So just the fact that they showed up and played super hard every day made a tremendous difference,” Coach Joe Schisler said.

Schisler was also optimistic on his number one player, Rachel Butz, and her performance.

“At singles districts I think Rachel Butz has a chance to medal in districts. She is an outstanding player, she’s really come a long way this year,” Schisler said.

A third year player, reflects on how her experience has helped her succeed.

“It helps because I’ve gotten to know two different coaches, and they both had different styles of teaching and coaching, so I’ve gotten a lot of input on my game,” junior Rachel Butz said.

Butz was in agreement with her assessment of the season.

“The last two years we’ve had not very good seasons. I’m pretty sure we had losing seasons both times, but this year we are up actually,” Butz said.

Schisler was proud of this years team.

“This season they did fantastic, they accomplished all their goals they doubled their win totals, made it to the district semifinal, went and competed well in many different tournaments where we go to tournaments that are tough and we finished in the top half of their brackets, so great season,” Schisler said.