L to R: Sydne Wahl, Kiera Lafferty, Gabby Anderson, and Brynn Gordon share the awards they received on Monday, October 26. Not pictured are players Julia Groebner, Courtlyn Runk, Erica Wells, Bella Holles, Jillian Mays. Photo submitted

River Valley tennis end of season awards

The River Valley tennis team celebrated the end of their season with an awards ceremony.  Head Coach Shane Laffen and Assistant Coach Brandon Andrews handed out awards to the team.

Letter winners were Brooklyn Moldan, Kaydince Thoms, Taylor Berkner, Megan Stevens, Alexis Garza, Erika Lozano, Maya Nelson, Lexanna Lazatin and Jasmyne Windschitl, all from Sleepy Eye and Kiera Lafferty, Sydne Wahl and Courtlyn Runck from Springfield.

Brooklyn Moldan was named to the Big South All-Conference team and Lexanna Lazatin was named to Academic All-State.   Coach Laffen commented, “The team was also silver level All State Academic (Team GPA above 3.5).  We just missed the gold level which is above 3.75.  We had a team GPA of 3.72.” The team played conference opponents this season.  They competed against Blue Earth, Fairmont, St. Peter, Waseca and New Ulm, the tougher side of the conference.  Coach Andrews shared, “COVID-19 led us to shortening the season and we were unable to practice together as often as we would have liked.  COVID also limited the opponents we were able to face.  It just so happens that most of our opponents were some of the top teams in the conference, so we knew that wins were going to be hard to come by.”

There was increased participation in the tennis program this season—24 girls were part of the Wildcat team.

Andrews commented, “I’m hoping that, as our program grows, the overall interest in our tennis program will grow in our communities.”  The coaches hope to continue to see progress in the off-season.  Laffen concluded, “While we will miss our seniors, we are bringing back nine of our top ten players at the end of the season.  Despite that, we will need a good off-season to put us in a position to be in the top half of the section next year.” 

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