Several girls scored well for the tennis team, even though two of the top six players were injured and unable to play during the first doubles tournament of the season at Troy.

Senior Caroline Schroeder was injured during the Aug. 25 tournament, but she has been doing the best she can to recover with physical therapy. Although it is difficult to put in your all when you are injured, Schroeder still managed to get through the tournament while encouraging the rest of the team to try their best.

“It was difficult, but I actually really enjoyed the opportunity to be able to watch people cheer on the teammates,” Schroeder said.

Along with Schroeder, senior Tori Ikeda was also injured when the tournament came around. During one of the practices before the tournament, Ikeda had got caught up when hitting valleys off the net and ended up spraining her ankle. Although she could not play in the first tournament, Ikeda knew she wanted to attend to support her teammates. At the tournament Ikeda was impressed with how the team handled having two injured players.

The team knew they were going to need to be extra prepared without Ikeda ready to play and other players not feeling 100 percent as well. Senior Grace James made an effort to practice extra hard because she knew it was going to be a challenge to place at this first tournament for a variety of reasons: many injuries, new partner pairings, and the pressure of it being the first tournament.

“Since the beginning of the season, there have been a lot of injuries on our team, and this is my first time playing with my actual partner Alyssa. We just practice through like communication and working together to prepare ourselves,” James said.

With plenty of encouragement and practice, the girls went on to win several matches during the tournament at Troy. Senior Brynlee Hendricks and junior Mackenzie Jones took second place in flight A, seniors NJ Heckencamp and Grace James took second in flight D, and the team got third place overall.