The Ellsworth Panthers girls’ tennis team earned a third-place finish in the Middle Border Conference for a second consecutive season, trailing only state-bound Altoona and the Osceola Chieftains in the final league standings.

After losing a couple of strong players to graduation last season, Ellsworth head coach Brad Baker was pleased with how the younger girls on his roster stepped up to bigger roles this season and competed against top players in the conference.

“We had some players playing for the first time on varsity, which is a big step for them,” Baker said. “Some of them jumped from JV. Our #2 doubles team of Mollie Anderson and Maggie Berns took a huge step having to play #2 doubles on varsity.”

It wasn’t just Anderson and Berns that made a jump to one of the elite tennis positions. Emily Groen and Bella Friesen both came up from JV and played #3 and #4 singles respectively. Karissa Kollbaum and Josie Pechacek, the #3 doubles team also moved up from last year’s JV roster.

“Emily (Groen) and Bella (Friesen) both came up from JV and played singles. They both had a really nice year,” Baker said. “Our #3 doubles team also were JV players last year and they had a good third-place finish in the conference. That was really good to see.”

The leaps that Baker’s roster made throughout the season helped his team earn another third-place finish in the conference and gave the roster some optimism heading into Subsectionals. However, an unfortunate draw in the seeding bracket pitted Ellsworth up against some of the top talent in western Wisconsin.

While the Middle Border Conference is a challenging league to begin with, having to face players from Rice Lake in the first round of the postseason was a level of competition that some players simply weren’t used to seeing.

“A couple of girls ended up having to play against Rice Lake,” Baker said. “We had a couple of #4 seeds that ended up having to face the #1 seed and that was tough.”

Perhaps no Ellsworth player had a worse draw at the Subsectional tournament at Baldwin- Woodville High School than junior Molly Janke, who went into the tournament as the second-best seed in the #1 singles tournament.

“The girl that Molly (Janke) played against was part of a doubles team last year for Rice Lake that finished sixth in the state,” Baker said of Janke’s seeding draw. “She was a good player and to have to play someone like that, we probably weren’t prepared enough to deal with it that early.”

Even with the unfortunate seeding draw for most of the Panthers, Ellsworth’s #1 doubles team of Dayah Halverson and Maria Harrington qualified for Sectionals where they were defeated in the first match by a tough Eau Claire Regis #1 doubles team.

While Ellsworth continues to remain competitive in the Middle Border Conference with another third-place finish, the Panthers won’t be losing too many players to graduation this year. According to Baker, Ellsworth is only graduating three seniors that see significant varsity time.

“We’re only losing three seniors,” Baker said. “Two of them are one of our doubles teams in Mollie (Anderson) and Maggie (Berns). The other senior is Emily Groen. We’re going to have to replace a doubles team and a singles player, but we’ve got good experience on our JV team and we have some up-and-comers that have improved. Quite honestly, it’s hard to say who is going to take those spots because they’ve all improved.”

If Ellsworth is going to have any significant success next season, it will begin with strong returning varsity experience. The Panthers’ top-two singles players in Molly Janke and Betsy Foster will lead the way next year. Janke earned a second-place finish individually in the MBC this year and Foster earned a third-place finish.

While Janke’s season ended prematurely due to a tough draw against a Rice Lake opponent, Foster struggled with injury throughout the latter half of the season and that derailed what Baker thought could be a season that culminated in a state tournament berth for her. He spoke about both of their seasons ending earlier than expected.

“Molly (Janke) and Besty (Foster) are both very strong players,” Baker said. “Betsy Foster ran into some injury in the season and I thought she had the potential to make it to the state tournament, her and Molly Janke both. Molly (Janke) just missed it by a little bit and Betsy Foster, I don’t know if she ever really got back to 100% from that injury.”

Janke’s State Tournament potential became apparent throughout the season. Janke played against four #1 singles this year that made it to the state tournament, including two players from Altoona, one from Mondovi, and another from Osceola. Janke split the season series with Osceola and defeated her the last time that she played against the Chieftains.

While graduation only looms for a couple of players, Ellsworth returns a majority of its talent next season and will be focusing on making a run at second place in the Middle Border Conference with all of the returning talent on the roster.

(From left) Ellsworth tennis seniors Mollie Anderson, Maggie Berns, and Emily Groen are the three players that the Panthers are losing to graduation in May. The three seniors all played pivotal roles on the varsity roster this season and helped Ellsworth secure another top-three finish in the Middle Border Conference standings in 2022. Photo by Gaylen Bicking