{"id":2441499,"date":"2019-03-08T21:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T04:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/steamboat-springs-girls-tennis-team-eyes-higher-state-placements\/"},"modified":"2019-03-08T21:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T04:36:00","slug":"steamboat-springs-girls-tennis-team-eyes-higher-state-placements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/steamboat-springs-girls-tennis-team-eyes-higher-state-placements\/","title":{"rendered":"Steamboat Springs girls tennis team eyes higher state placements"},"content":{"rendered":"
Steamboat Springs High School senior Lily Fox returns a serve at practice on Wednesday, March 6, at the Tennis Center at Steamboat Springs. Fox is hoping to return to state for the second time in her high school career.<\/strong>
Leah Vann\/Steamboat Today<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 The Steamboat Springs High School girls tennis team had state on its mind at practice on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Sailors have won 14 regional titles in 15 years, but head coach Kristyn Wykert wants them to aspire to something more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve asked my players what their personal goal is and what their team goal is and with that, a lot of them wanted to win regionals,\u201d Wykert said. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Why do we want to stop there?\u2019 Because last year at state we got sixth. We\u2019re trying to set our goal a little bit higher this year, because I know we can make a statement at state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steamboat junior Mae Thorp has made the trip to state for the past two years at No. 1 singles, taking second place at both and hopes to make this season her golden year. Last year, Thorp fell to senior Trisha Somasundaram from Peak to Peak and the year before that to fellow freshman Sammy Moore-Thomson of the Colorado Academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe needs to stay present in the point and use all the tools that she has because she has a toolbox and sometimes only takes out a few of the tricks that she knows,\u201d Wykert said. \u201cShe needs strategy and variety, changing up her game a little bit. Sometimes she\u2019s just one speed, power and go, and doesn\u2019t care what the other person is doing. She needs to make sure she uses all the different strokes and places her serves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorp spent her offseason managing and practicing with the boys varsity team, returning serves from Sailors\u2019 top player Andy Schuiling, who took fifth at this year\u2019s state championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like playing with the boys. It\u2019s one of my favorite parts of tennis year-round. It\u2019s so nice to have them,\u201d Thorp said. \u201cIt\u2019s a different challenge \u2014 they definitely are not easy on girls. Andy will serve 120 miles per hour and you have to figure out how to get it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sailors senior Lily Fox has also played tennis year-round over the years, and trained with Thorp and the boys this offseason. She currently holds the No. 2 singles spot on the team. Fox made state her sophomore year, but lost during a highly contentious match in the first round that crippled her mental game.<\/p>\n

As a varsity veteran since her freshman year, Fox has waited to take the reins on leading the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the only freshman on varsity when I came in,\u201d Fox said. \u201cI was on the three singles spot and now I\u2019m really excited to take that leadership position and foster a loving environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox is one of five seniors on the roster, but the bulk of the team\u2019s depth comes from its junior class, which includes Thorp, No. 3 singles player Noelle Cerone and the doubles team of Morgan Sauerbrey and Lauren Ehrlich.<\/p>\n

While the singles and doubles positions are likely to shift through challenge matches in the coming weeks, Sauerbrey and Ehrlich come off two years of state experience like Thorp.<\/p>\n

Sauerbrey and Ehrlich were first paired at No. 4 doubles during their freshman year, where Ehrlich battled through challenge matches during the opening weeks of practice to earn her spot on the court with Sauerbrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, we didn\u2019t know each other and it was kind of weird,\u201d Ehrlich said. \u201cChemistry is really important on the court because a lot of tennis is communicating, but over time it\u2019s gotten much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two qualified for state and made the quarterfinals as freshmen and moved up through the ranks the following year to the No. 1 doubles spot. They made the state quarterfinal once again before facing elimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to qualify for state again, but last year we had some frustrations at state and I want to get through those,\u201d Sauerbrey said. \u201cWe made it to the quarterfinals and I got so mad during the match, and I just don\u2019t want to get in my head like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sauerbrey admits that her competitive nature is more outwardly expressed while Ehrlich keeps a calm demeanor. The two personalities balance each other out on the court and also play to their strengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I have a good serve and Morgan (Sauerbrey) has better ground strokes,\u201d Ehrlich said.<\/p>\n

With this being their third year together, Ehrlich and Sauerbrey hope they can make it further in the state tournament by playing smart tennis and being able to pick up each other\u2019s slack in challenging court situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have really good chemistry. Since they have played together for so long, their movement and communication is really good,\u201d Wykert said.<\/p>\n

In her second year as head coach, Wykert is hoping to foster a team culture where players will cheer each other on when they\u2019re off the court. She believes that high school tennis provides opportunities for life lessons, and now that she has one year under her belt, growth is more attainable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve set the tone this year because the girls are taking to what I\u2019d like this team to be,\u201d Wykert said. \u201cI have a vision of how I want this team to bond. I wanted to change the culture a little bit and that was kind of a struggle last year. This year, we\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n

lvann@steamboatpilot.com<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steamboat Springs High School senior Lily Fox returns a serve at practice on Wednesday, March 6, at the Tennis Center at Steamboat Springs. Fox is hoping to return to state for the second time in her high school career.Leah Vann\/Steamboat Today STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 The Steamboat Springs High School girls tennis team had state on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2441499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 03:38:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2441499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2441499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2441499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2441499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}