The Geneva girls tennis team is certainly no stranger to success. They know what it’s like to win league championships.
In those terms, this season has been like any other for the Eagles.
After finishing the last two seasons at 20-1, Geneva is 18-2, this time around. It Thursday, they beat Madison to claim its fourth straight Premier Athletic Conference championship, their seventh straight league championship, dating back to their days in the Northeastern Conference and the 12th in the last 13 years.
“We always talk at the beginning of the season one of our first goals is to win a conference title,” coach Scott Torok said. “I guess you can say it’s news when we lose. I tell the girls they have a big bullseye on their backs. Everybody wants to beat Geneva.
“We talk about tradition. They see what the boys have done. They see the numbers on the shed.”
The Eagles are 9-0 in PAC play and still have one more match to play with Lakeside heading to Geneva today.
Geneva fell to Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin on Monday, 5-0, for its second loss. It’s the first time in at least a couple of years it’s lost even that many.
“They gained tremendous experience the last two years and were 20-1 in both season,” Torok said. “This year, we tried to beef up the schedule more to make it tougher on them and they still did that well.
“They’re very self motivated. I think for all the girls we have on the varsity roster and all but a couple who run track on the junior varsity, this is their only sport. This is their main sport. They play all winter and summer. That makes it easy on me.”
Torok doesn’t have to do much selling when it comes to playing year round.
“It’s follow the leader,” he said. “The girls before them have all done it. We have seven seniors nad just about all of them played out at Pine Lake last winter. They don’t want to be left behind.
“They’re following Courtney Thompson, Leslie Douglass and Jessica Coggins. Courtney Brenkus was the first (great player) I coached and she started things.”
The Eagles have been led by first-singles player Alyx Lynham, who moved all the way from third singles a year ago to the top of the lineup this fall.
“She worked really hard,” Totok said. “I talked with her father and she averaged about 38 hours a week on the court over the summer.
“She knew she wanted to be No. 1 and she earned it. She beat the other girls and now she’s on the top of the list and she still has another year to play.”
Moving up in a lineup is never easy in tennis. Doing so with any letterwinners in front of you graduating is almost impossible.
“I don’t think we graduated any letterwinners,” Torok said. “If one girl is moving up, another girl has to move down. There’s some ego with the girls. That’s their position. They swallowed that because they want ot be part of things.
“Alex Clarke was No. 1 last year and I’m not saying she regressed. It’s just that Anna Forman and Alyx Lynham improved that much. And Alex and Kristen Farrell have done a nice job at first doubles.
Martina Drugovich has played third singles and Lindsey Varckette and Brooke Mihalick have been at third singles.
With seniors Courtney Leininger and Shayla Phillips on the outside looking in, the Eagles have some depth few other teams can boast.
“The depth of this group is amazing,” Torok said. “We’ve won a lot of matches with that depth. I’ve never had a group so deep.
“I feel bad for Courtney. In any other year, she’d be in our top five. She was just born at the wrong time. Shayla’s had to play JV most of the year. I wish we could redshirt a couple.”
Ettinger is a freelance writer from Ashtabula.
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