Cardinals Crank Up 5A Racquet

Farmington 2014 Tennis Outlook

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER The Farmington tennis team will be among the school’s first athletic programs to compete at the 5A level.
MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER The Farmington tennis team will be among the school’s first athletic programs to compete at the 5A level.

FARMINGTON -- Second-year coach Matt Mahan not only expects the Cardinal tennis team to welcome the challenge of moving up to 5A competition but to flourish.

The 2014 Farmington tennis team is led by seniors: Teah Flynn, state runner-up in 4A doubles paired with Haley Maxwell last season, who also finished in top three of 4A singles as freshman and sophomore; Jenifer Palmer, 2013 4A quarterfinalist in singles; and Jeremy Mueller for the boys.

Mueller is expected to pair with junior Will Warren for doubles competition to make up the Cards No. 1 team. Jeffrey Kutter, also a junior, is expected to be the boys No. 1 singles player.

A battle is brewing for the No. 1 girls doubles team.

"We've got some jockeying for position in what I'm going to do about my number one girls doubles team," Mahan said. "I think I've got two girls, Kailee Kyger (junior) and Jenifer Palmer, who would make a fantastic doubles team, but then you've also got (sophomore) Sam Troilo and (junior) Patti Bruno, who are just as competitive."

"I'm real excited to see how that shakes out with those four girls. There's two out of that four who I think could be a real dynamic doubles team."

Another junior out is Whitney Greenlee plus sophomore Caleb Lipford and freshmen: Jaine Amerine, Makayla Clevenger, Peyton Maxwell, Austin Rabbe and Jake Phillips.

"5A is a pretty competitive league top to bottom. So, we're just looking forward to getting down there and seeing some new teams at a higher skill level and showing them what we've got," Mahan said. "I think we've got a pretty strong team, a lot of remaining players. We lost two strong seniors last year but as all I think we're a little bit stronger team from all six of my No. 1 players than maybe we were a year ago. Although we did lose two great, valuable seniors I'm really excited about this group."

Mahan sees the overall quality of the Cardinal tennis program improving. Last year was his first year and coaching tennis was all brand new to the assistant boys basketball coach but Mahan was pleasantly surprised when the Cards came back out in May for tryouts, the first time he got to see them after the winter break.

"I was surprised at how much the kids had been playing on their own and how they'd maintained their skill. They looked pretty polished to have a three, four month break," Mahan said.

Farmington's kids, they keep turning out. When Mahan opens the courts they show up. "They're hitting, they've got their own lessons on the side. They go and they're pretty dedicated and it's been great to see the same numbers, strong numbers coming up each year as freshmen," Mahan said. "We're still stepping up and kids still come and in our camps, in our peewee camps they're just growing and growing each year. This year we had almost 50 kids show up and it's fantastic to see that as a group it's starting to take hold."

Sports on 08/27/2014