Girls Tennis: Record Newspapers girls tennis preview capsules

The girls tennis season is underway. Here are previews of teams from around the Record Newspapers coverage area.

Oswego

Coach: Christine Kueker

Top returners: Sofia Carr, jr.; Mykayla Mendiola, jr.; Rylie Fioresi, jr.; Sharanya Begur, jr.; Sarah Kill, sr.

Key newcomers: Nicole Ely, jr., Rylie McNanna, jr., Lauren Petrauskas, jr., Daniella Pruitt, fr., Mandy Tsang, so.; and Riley Travis, sr.

Worth nothing: The Panthers have 14 girls on the varsity roster and 15 on the varsity team. Kueker returns as head coach, with Jaclyn DiPasquale coming aboard as the junior varsity coach. Oswego comes off a 2020 season with medals for fourth-place winners at the Southwest Prairie Conference tournament. Five girls return from varsity with three joining from the JV and three more who are new to the team.

Oswego East

Coach: Peter Conrad

Top returners: Caitlin Carmody, sr.; Lilli Price, sr.; Jasmine Chan, jr.; Sophia Calafos, jr., Kate Lindsay, jr.; Molly Gardner, so.; Vennela Reddy Vakati. so.

Key newcomer: Eeshana Bhuvanesh, so.

Worth noting: The Wolves are looking forward to a strong season with numbers back up from a year ago. Oswego East has big shoes at No. 1 singles with SPC champion Makayla Buenafe graduated, but the Wolves return Carmody, Price, Chan, Calafos, Lindsay, Gardner and Vakati. Bhuvanesh, who moves from JV to varsity, is expected to make an immediate impact.

“Overall, there are a lot of new faces in the program, but they are off to a great start and working very hard,” Conrad said.

Yorkville

Coach: Frank Yabsley 29th season with girls tennis

Top returners: Jenny Lietz, sr.; Lizzy Taylor, sr.; Kylie May, sr.; Alana Burger, sr.; Ashlee Dasenbrock, sr.; Kaitlyn Gerrick, sr.; Brittany Pomierski, sr.; Kaitlyn Hix, jr.; Payton Reilly, jr.; Kylee Sandon, jr.; Maria Paus, jr.; Kaitlyn Rojas, jr.; Lotte Puenjer; Alexis Fedanzo-Dudley, so.;

Key newcomers: Kara Kosulic, fr.

Worth noting: Yabsley is in his 29th season with the girls tennis program. Lietz, Hix, Fedanzo-Dudley and Kosulic are competing for singles positions with the rest of the girls competing for doubles positions. Puenjer is a foreign exchange student from Germany who could play singles or doubles.

“The team is young and capable for varsity players,” Yabsley said. “We have some very competitive players who have been taking lessons in the offseason. Their improvement is very noticeable. We could be a surprise in the conference.”