Lebanon’s girls tennis is on the upswing, says Head Coach Endya Robinson, and that’s going according to plan – her plan.
Robinson, in her second year at the helm, is a Warrior alum who played four years on Lebanon’s courts herself. Towards the end of her playing career, the program started slumping and after she graduated, she said, she decided she wanted to do something about it.
“I live in my hometown and I work at one of the schools, so I wanted to bring this program back up to what it used to be when I went to school. I want to bring it back.
After volunteering for two years with then-coach Andrew Evans, Robinson took over last year. She’s assisted by Carra Culbertson.
“We didn’t have uniforms until last year,” she said. “It’s been really exciting.”
Players have been recruiting girls who aren’t playing other spring sports, she said.
“They’ve reached out to their friends and told them about how fun the program was and how, like, we want to build it back up.
“A lot of these girls have worked hard.”
Robinson said she played tennis as an alternative to her main high school sport, volleyball, because it helped her develop the explosiveness necessary for both games.
Her team is young, although 12 of her 27 players are back from last year: seniors Greta Abbott, Hailey Destowet, Jane Gonzalez, Daniela Sanchez-Guzman and Gwyneth Wheeler, junior Alison Frey, and sophomores Elizabeth Goodwin, Valeria Ortiz, Emma Ross, Kendall Sowa, Livian Victor and Kadence Volkers.
New to the team are seniors Mayte Diaz-Sanchez, Payton Voight and Anne Workman, sophomores Lylah Cox, Brooklyn Davis, Alexis Lindsay, Monica Ramirez, Kylee Ryan and Emma Wright, and freshmen Avery Carver, Bella Foubert, Katy Kolling, Rylie Noonchester, Sophia Vo and Chloee Walters.
The Mid-Willamette Conference is not only the largest in the 5A Division but includes some of the top teams, perennial state champion Crescent Valley and 2019 state champ Corvallis among them.
“It’s a pretty diverse level of skills throughout,” Robinson said of the league. “So some of our girls have more challenging matches, while other girls, it’s a breeze for them. It’s definitely a competition for us.
She said she’s hoping to get at least one Warrior to state this year, or by next year.
Frey, who’s in her third year with the team, is one that Robinson hopes to see playing at the end of the season.
“If we keep on track with her improvement now, either this year or next year we’re looking at a really high chance of her getting to state.”
Frey was 3-1 in No. 1 singles play coming into this week after matches against McDaniel on April 3, in which she suffered her first loss of the season, to Nhi Tran 6-4, 6-4, after wins over Cascade’s Kenzie Clausen (6-3, 6-3) on April 2, Stayton’s Elise Comstock (6-1, 6-0) on March 19, and Philomath’s Lucy Thomas 6-2, – (retired) on March 17. Destowet (1-6, 6-1, 10-7) and Workman (6-4, 6-1) were singles winners against McDaniel and Workman won her singles match against Cascade (6-3, 6-2).
Abbott and Sanchez Guzman won their No. 1 doubles match against McDaniel (7-5, 7-5) as Lebanon finished 3-5 as a team.
Lebanon’s remaining home matches will be against Dallas on April 14, followed by Silverton on April 17, Central on April 29 and South Albany on May 6.