There are times where situations call for a change, and after that switch everything falls into place.

That was the case for senior Ottawa girls tennis players Zulee Moreland and Yaquelin Hernandez-Solis early this past season when they were teamed up by Pirates coach Steve Johnson to be the No. 1 doubles team.

“I had a rough summer in terms of tennis,” said Moreland, who as a junior was the Times Girls Tennis Player of the Year as a singles player. “I was really struggling with my forehand, and that inconsistency wasn’t ironing out at the start of the season. Teaming up with Yaquelin really boosted my confidence.”

Hernandez-Solis also played singles as a junior, but said it wasn’t a good fit for her.

“[My junior year] was the first time playing singles, and I’d worked on being a singles player, but I really didn’t like it,” Hernandez-Solis said. “I told Coach Johnson that I’d play either singles or doubles this season, but preferred going back to doubles.

“I knew after the first game of the first set with Zulee that it was going to be a great fit.”

The duo finished the season with a 27-11 record and won the Interstate 8 Conference Tournament title, the Class 1A Ottawa Sectional championship and finished a solid 3-2 at the state tournament.

Their final accomplishment as a team? Being named together as the 2025 Times Girls Tennis Players of the Year.

“I’ll be honest, who was in our sectional had a lot to do with it,” Johnson said. “I knew three, four, five singles players deep in our sectional were going to be really good, and that was going to make the path to state a tough one.

“I knew if we teamed Zulee and Yaquelin together, they would be very solid, and their chance to advance to state was really, really good; and also our No. 2 team of seniors Rylee Harsted and Brooklyn Byone would have a good chance, as well.”

Moreland and Hernandez-Solis earned the top seed for sectionals and rolled through their opening three matches. But in the title match against Morris’ Emerson Wheeler and Lyla Conley, a team they defeated for the I-8 championship just a week before, the Pirates team dropped the opening set 6-4.

“I feel like the weaknesses we have as tennis players are the other’s strengths,” Hernandez-Solis said. “I also feel we both were mentally tougher, were more aggressive and had more confidence as partners. We lacked that in that first set, but talked before the second set and came back out strong.”

The Pirates duo bounced back to take the final two sets 6-4 and 6-2 to win the title and momentum for state.

“Because we had a couple of tournaments canceled, the girls didn’t get some wins they probably would have gotten, and because of that didn’t get seeded for state, but they showed how good a team they were.”

In the opening day of the state tournament in the Chicago suburbs, Moreland and Hernandez-Solis opened with a win, but then lost to drop into the consolation bracket.

They began their opening match on Day 2 down a set before coming back for a third-set, tiebreaking victory. They captured another triumph in their fourth match before having their season and high school careers end in their fifth match.

“We had played as partners a few times before for a couple of tournaments and summer rec before this year, but not much more than that,” Moreland said. “It took us a little while to bond on the court, but when we did, I feel like we were a tough team to beat. We had great chemistry and really played for each other.

“It was a fun season.”

Both players say they have ideas of what the future holds.

“I feel like I may go into music education, potentially at the University of Iowa where my sister is going,” said Moreland, who is also an all-state saxophone player. “Nothing set yet, but that is maybe what I do and where I go.”

“I will be graduating early, but I’m still undecided of what and where specifically the path leads for me,” Hernandez-Solis said. “What I do know is I want to be doing something that is going to be helping people.”