By Reagan Hoverman

The Ellsworth Panthers girls tennis team is targeting another third-place finish in the Middle Border Conference standings for the 2022 season after finishing third last year be hind Amery and Altoona.

In the three years that Brad Baker has been head coach of the Ellsworth tennis team, Altoona and Amery have been the class of the conference. While Altoona remains a powerhouse tennis program that likely can’t be caught, Amery graduated talent that leaves an opening for a new second-best team in the conference.

That opening near the top of the conference became clear when Ellsworth defeated Amery for the first time under the direction of Baker. He spoke about that 5-2 win against the Amery Warriors and the talent on his team and around the conference.

“Our first match of the season was against Altoona, who is still the class of the conference,” Baker said. “That was a tough one. The girls kept improving and working hard and then we played Amery. In my previous years coaching here, we hadn’t beat Amery until this year. That was a nice win for us.”

See ELLSWORTH TENNIS, Page B-5 Notable results from that match against Amery on Thursday, Aug. 25, include three of Ellsworth’s top four singles players winning their respective matches. That includes Molly Janke defeating Truc Nguyen in No. 1 singles, Betsy Foster defeating Annie Zinn in No. 2 singles, and Bella Friesen defeating Jorja Ajer in No. 4 singles.

Ellsworth also secured victories in two of the three doubles matches. That includes Mollie Anderson and Maggie Berns defeating Kaylee Waalen and Kaileigh Hosking in the No. 2 doubles match. Ellsworth’s Karissa Kollbaum and Josie Pechacek also defeated Sala Hayes and Lyla Stone in the No. 3 doubles match.

The strength of this year’s Ellsworth tennis team is in the returning talent. Accord – ing to Baker, all of the varsity contributors from last season return to this year’s team. He spoke about how he’s going to judge this season.

“We’re going to judge it by conference results and overall improvement,” Baker said. “The conference is so strong. We had a really good team last year and we finished third. I thought that was as good as we could do. Amery was second last year and we beat them last week. This year, Osceola is probably the second-best team.” While Ellsworth, Amery and Osceola are all vying for the second slot in the conference, it’s a constant uphill battle because of the strong middle school programs that Altoona and other larger schools in western Wisconsin have built. Those schools use middle school tennis as a never-ending feeder operation for the varsity programs.

“Altoona has a lot of girls to choose from, they have 40 girls out for tennis this year,” Baker said. “They start in middle school. I don’t know about the conference as much, but teams like New Richmond and Altoona have middle school teams. That’s where we’re a little behind some of those schools.” While some of those larger schools have athletes who specialize in tennis, Ellsworth is composed of mostly two- and three-sport athletes such as Maria Harrington, Molly Janke, and others. They are involved with other sports including basketball, softball, and track and field.

While it will be an uphill battle to try to catch Osceola and Altoona, Baker will rely on that returning experience and important leadership among the team from captains Molly Janke and Betsy Foster, as well as senior Molie Anderson, who isn’t a captain but brings a valuable presence to the locker room.

“I feel like Mollie Anderson, she breaks it down for us, she’s always cheering, she’s a spark plug for us,” Baker said. “She’s not afraid to go get it and get after us.” Ellsworth’s next tennis match is at home against Baldwin-Woodville on Thursday, Sept. 8, at the tennis courts at Summit Park. That match is slated to begin at 4:15 p.m.

Ellsworth junior Molly Janke hits a ball back over the net during her singles match against Amery’s Truc Nguyen on Thursday, Aug. 25. Janke’s victory in the No. 1 singles match was one of five Ellsworth victories on Thursday afternoon at Summit Park. Photo by Gaylen Bicking