Finding tennis: L-P roster full of girls who didn’t play before high school

Emmie Hachenberger went to one summer volleyball practice before her freshman year and decided it wasn’t for her.

Ava Lannen didn’t have a fall sport entering La Salle-Peru High School.

Izzy Pohar played volleyball as a freshman but was looking for a change before her sophomore year.

They all found tennis.

L-P tennis coach Aaron Guenther recruited Lannen at a summer basketball practice.

“Guenther told me about tennis, and I was like, ‘I’ll give it a try,’” Lannen said. “I went to a few open courts and decided I actually really liked it.

“Everyone seemed really fun, and I just found tennis enjoyable.”

Matt Guenther, Aaron Guenther’s brother and a physical education teacher at Parkside, mentioned the sport as a possibility to Hachenberger.

And Pohar found tennis on the recommendation of her friend Karissa Etzenbach, who already was a member of the tennis team.

“My friend who was a junior was playing, so I thought it would be fun to do, and then I just started to really like it,” Pohar said.

Stories like Hachenberger’s Lannen’s and Pohar’s are common for the L-P tennis program, as 10 of the team’s 12 players on the varsity roster – and seven of the eight in the starting lineup – never played the sport before high school.

“When you look at grade schools and middle schools, they’ve got basketball and baseball teams. For girls, they have volleyball, track and softball, so that’s what they grow up knowing, and they don’t even know that tennis is really an option,” Aaron Guenther said.

So Guenther and assistant Scott Blessman have to recruit.

Guenther said they’ll look at the sophomore volleyball roster to see if anyone who played as freshmen are no longer playing.

They also talk to athletes who don’t have a fall sport.

“I don’t want to poach girls away from other programs, but if we can get somebody who’s not already playing something or maybe someone who is on the fence about what they should do, we recruit,” Guenther said.

Guenther, who was a standout player at Ottawa High School and Illinois Wesleyan University, said girls are generally happy with their decision to play tennis.

“I truthfully haven’t talked to anybody who’s been like, ‘Yeah, I really regret playing tennis,’” Guenther said. “More often than not we have girls saying, ‘I wish I knew about this earlier. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to start playing.’ It’s really neat when you see them at the start and then by senior year what they’ve become.”

Hachenberger, Lannen and Pohar all said they had limited skills when they joined the team but now are key players for the Cavaliers.

“It ranges from rough to very rough, generally,” Guenther said about players’ skills when they first start tennis. “A lot of times if they’ve played volleyball, they have the serve somewhat down and have the net play somewhat down, but it’s the ground strokes that take a little bit of time to figure out.

“Coach Blessman is one of the best freshman/sophomore coaches in the area and maybe even wider than that, so he really teaches them the fundamentals, and by the time they get to varsity, they’ve got that foundation, and they just kind of sail from there.”

Guenther said Hachenberger, Lannen and Pohar “have improved dramatically.”

“You don’t get the hang of it right away,” Hachenberger said. “You have to be patient and really work at it.”

The trio has put in a lot of work over the years, including attending summer workouts and taking lessons in Bloomington during the winter.

With all the work they’ve put in, Hachenberger, Lannen and Pohar have helped the Cavs to an 8-2 dual record and are hoping to help L-P to some hardware this season.

Lannen is looking to return to state – this time with Hachenberger as her partner – while Pohar hopes to qualify as well with Kaylie Reese.

“For the team, there is still a chance we can win conference. That’s our first goal,” Guenther said. “Our second goal is to win the sectional. I think that’s within our reach if we can continue to work hard and improve.

“I think they all [Hachenberger, Lannen and Pohar] could make state with their doubles partners, and I think they could make some noise while there.”

After their journey from novice players to state contenders, Hachenberger, Lannen and Pohar said they’d “definitely” recommend tennis to others looking to pick up a new sport.

“It’s fun, and you really don’t feel that much pressure,” Hachenberger said.