With only one more match in the 2024 Tennis regular season, players and coaches are gearing up for tournament play.
Thanks to the Tennis Bubble at Wheeling Park, the Patriots have been able to play most of their matches amid the multiple flash floods that took place during their season.
“Luckily for us, we haven’t had to deal with too many cancellations. We have been able to book the Wheeling Park Tennis Bubble in advance so we’ve had our first match of the year against Parkersburg canceled because they couldn’t get a bus up here. We had to cancel going to Bridgeport and Weir during the first week of the flooding. Other than that, we have had no matches canceled. We’ve gotten the majority of our matches in, we had six last week, four this week, and OVACs start on Monday (April 22nd),” said Girls Head Coach Chad Broadwater, on how he’s preparing his team for the postseason through some of the cancellations.
The girls team sits at 9-2, while the boy’s record is 5-5. A key player for the girls team is sophomore Madeline Bradshaw, who as a freshman last year qualified for the state tournament.
“I hope that the girls will qualify as a team to make it downstate. For me personally, I hope to make it to the finals downstate for both singles and doubles,” said Bradshaw, on her expectations for herself and the team.
The Tennis Team’s last match is tomorrow, April 19th against University High School at the Wheeling Park Tennis Bubble.
Turning to next season, the Patriots will be losing five seniors. Taylor Broadwater on the girl’s team and Nick Trischler, Lance Miller, Evan Stingle, and Grant Kenamond on the boy’s team.
“We are losing a lot. Aaron Chao (sophomore), his brother Asher, who’s a freshman, and Rex (Montanye), who is also a freshman are our only returning players for next season. Luckily all of them play year-round. Aaron has developed very well from his freshman year to his sophomore year, and hopefully, Aaron will grow even more and the other two will follow his growth path,” said boys head coach Troy Salatino, when asked about the development of his underclassman.
