With the girls tennis season underway, here’s a look at La Salle-Peru, St. Bede, Mendota and Princeton for the 2025 season.

La Salle-Peru

Coach: Aaron Guenther

Top returning players: Dagny Greer, sr.; Meredith Politsch, sr.

Top new players: Adelyn Leone, jr.; Addi Piecha, jr.; April Pescetto, jr.; Alia Nowakowski, sr.

Worth noting: The Cavaliers graduated 11 of their top 12 players from last year’s team that won Interstate 8 Conference and sectional titles. Greer and Politsch gained some experience last season playing No. 6 singles and/or No. 3 doubles. “This year is going to be about gaining varsity experience and learning to compete at a higher level,” Guenther said. “There’s a noticeable jump in competitiveness and intensity from the F/S/JV level to varsity, so this year’s team is going to need to make that adjustment in their practices so they are ready come competition time.” L-P will be bolstered by a strong junior class that had success at the lower levels. Leone was a conference champion at the fresh/soph level, while Piecha and Pescetto were a strong doubles team on fresh/soph. Lenoe will likely be playing singles, while Greer also will be in the mix along with some newcomers. Piecha and Pescetto will be paired together after having success in local tournaments over the summer. Politsch, Nowakowski, who Guenther said “worked hard over the summer to earn a spot in the varsity lineup,” Julia Garcia, a foreign exchange student, Abby Smudzinski, Morgan Ficek and Marley Escatel also are battling for spots in the doubles lineup. “Our goal as a program is to have a state qualifier every year,” Guenther said. “We failed in 2023, but then came back with a fire in 2024 and had both singles and doubles players qualify. While that might be a big ask for a second year in a row, the top of our lineup is determined to keep the qualifier streak alive.”

St. Bede

Coach: Amethyst Ernat

Top returning players: Chipper Rossi, sr.; Lily Soliman, sr.; Emerald De La Torre, sr.

Top new players: Elsie Soliman, so.; Alicia Barreras, so.; Josie Trujillo, so.

Worth noting: Ernat, a La Salle-Peru graduate and 2019 state qualifier and NewsTribune Girls Tennis Player of the Year, takes over the Bruins after serving as an assistant the past three years under Jill Urban-Bollis. “I fell in love with the game while playing at L-P and IVCC,” Ernat said. “When I got asked to help Jill with St. Bede after my sophomore year at IV, I jumped on the opportunity to help her and teach the girls the sport I love. … I hope to bring my knowledge from the coaches I have been taught by, also from what Jill has taught me the last three years. I have been putting in the extra work the couple weeks before the season to help the girls mature into the tennis players they want to be.” Ernat has three seniors who will lead the way in Rossi, Lily Soliman and De La Torre, who Ernat feels all could compete for a state berth. Trujillo, Barreras and junior Kyra Finley are in the mix to play singles, while a combination of Rossi, De La Torre and the Solimans will make up the top two doubles teams. “My goals for this year are for my girls to win more matches than they lose and also for every girl to get better every match they play,” Ernat said.

Mendota

Coach: Miguel Bermudez

Top returning players: Lucie Brandner, sr.; Chloe Walzer, sr.; Ella Lewis, sr.; Leah Stamberger, sr.; Kylie Goldblatt, sr.

Top new players: Mackenzie Mumm, jr.; Karla Ascensio, jr.; Emily Sondgeroth, jr.

Worth noting: The Trojans have a big group of returning players. Lewis played No. 1 singles last year, Stamberger and Goldblatt played No. 1 doubles, and Brandner and Walzer return after filling the No. 3 doubles spot. Lewis and Goldblatt will play singles this season, while Stamberger, Mumm, Ascensio, Brandner, Sondgeroth and Walzer are all in the mix to play doubles. “Our goal this year is to improve on last year,” Bermudez said. “We finished 5-7 last year with some close matches and will try to flip that this year.”

Princeton

Coach: Connie Lind

Top returning players: Tessa Carlson, sr.; Anna Ellis, so.; Audrey Thompson, sr.

Key newcomers: Ava Munson, fr.; Uli Schneider, fr.; Karlie Schultz, so.; Lilly Mabry, so.; Daphnie Grant, so.

Worthy of note: Lind will shuffle the deck for her final season as girls tennis coach. The Tigresses will be without two of their three returning starters in Carlson and Thompson, who are out with injuries at this time, and will start the season with one senior in Mie Lose, a foreign exchange student from Denmark, five sophomores and two freshmen in the lineup. Ellis, who played No. 2 doubles last year, moves up to No. 1 doubles with classmate Schultz, who played JV singles last year. Lind said Ellis is “a take-charge player, so that will help Karlie adjust when she needs to.” Munson and Schneider will team up at No. 2 doubles and “have worked hard on learning doubles and learning where each other will be on the court.” At No. 3 doubles will be sophomore Alice Scruggs and Lose. Mabry (No. 1) and Grant (No. 2) will handle singles play, making the adjustment from an eight-game pro set to playing two out of three sets at the varsity level. “We are young this year, but all these girls love playing tennis. This will help Coach (Jamie) Munson out in the years to come,” Lind said. Jamie Munson, the former Jamie Griggs, was a senior the first year Lind took over as girls tennis coach.