The Brahma and Lady Brahma tennis teams started practice earlier this year. They have already competed in three tournaments and won many medals.
Aubrey Freytag, a junior and varsity tennis player, has big goals for this year, especially being an upperclassman. She’s looking to make it far into district, and potentially regionals.
“This year, my personal goal is to make it to regionals with my doubles partner, Kaisly. I know this won’t be easy, but I plan to get there by putting in a ton of work—from practicing with the team to training with our private coach. Playing matches with Kaisly is also super important because it helps us get comfortable with each other’s style and prepares us for real game situations,” Freytag said.
Rylan Orsak, who is also a junior and plays girls doubles on varsity with her partner Kate, has similar goals to Freytag and wants to medal at district and also wants her to team well and potentially place at district.
“My goal for this year is to win a medal at district! I plan to achieve that goal by working hard at practice and striving to do my best,” Orsak said. “Also I would obviously love for everyone to give this season their all and place at district!”
Some of the younger varsity players include sophomores Natalie Sandelovic and Kennedy Walpole, who were doubles partners in earlier years. They now both play singles for varsity and are looking to improve from how they did last year.
“My goal was to make varsity, and I did, I also want to place in district. I also want to potentially make it to regionals,” Walpole said.
“A goal I have for myself is to make it to the semi-finals in at least one meet. I set this goal as it is reasonable for me because it is my first time playing singles. I plan to reach this goal by putting in extra work and not giving up, even when I am losing,” Sandelovic said.
Although the girls are on the younger side, compared to other varsity players, they are still looking to help their team in any way they can, including analyzing their team during practices to learn and helpfully critique their teammates.
“I feel we have a good group of people playing this year. I think we will see a huge improvement from last year, as our number of players has already tripled in size. I believe that everyone playing has great potential, with the people who just started this year already showing great improvement, and our advanced players who are already showing promise and medaling,” Sandelovic said.
“I feel like as separate teams we work very well together. But as a whole, I feel maturity imbalances, but we can work around that,” Walpole said.
This year the tennis team has a new coach, Mrs. Mathews. With it being her first year in Hallettsville, she is looking to work hard to improve the students of HHS both as a school counselor and tennis coach.
“Every year, my goals are the same: get kids to love tennis and leave it better than when I got it. We work hard at practice, but I always try to make it enjoyable so that kids come out to play because they love the sport. I also strive to always grow the program and get it stronger than it was before I got here. This doesn’t necessarily mean we all win state, to me it means that we get more kids playing and continue to make them better,” Coach Mathews said.
Not only is Mathews proud of her team’s accomplishments so far, but she is already looking forward to the growth of the tennis program as a whole.
“Yes, I definitely do think our team has met their goals. We have 20 players that are getting better every day and having fun while they do it. So far we have had players win medals at every tournament we’ve entered and it is building their confidence and their competitive spirit. We also have a large group of junior high students that are planning to play, which means great things for the future of Hallettsville Tennis,” Coach Mathews said.
Be sure to support your Brahmas and Lady Brahmas tennis team at tournaments and encourage them to have fun as well as win.
“I can’t wait to see what we accomplish this season!” Freytag said.
