Last season’s Mount Vernon High School girls tennis team went 10-11 for coach Steve Tier and assistant Erica Gray and finished in fourth place in the OCC with a 4-3 mark. This is Tier’s 17th year with the program, his 12th as head coach and he owns a 90-123 record. He was also 13-20 in two years as boys head coach and he sees this team as being young and looks for improvement over the course of the year.
“We will be a much younger team since we lost four seniors from last year's team.” Tier said. “We will have a long-range outlook with this team because only four of this year’s 13 players are upper classmen -- three seniors and one junior. This means that we have many other players who will play with us for the next three or four years. We need to be focusing on improvement over time during this season.”
While the squad lost four letter-winners to graduation, Tier has eight returning letter-winners: Cameron Carlson, sophomore, first singles and Addie Cooperider, junior, second singles; as well as the trio of Faith Hunter, senior; Natalie Gourley, sophomore and Abi Ferris, sophomore, rotating among third singles and first doubles and the trio of Carly Tracey, senior; Samantha Davis, senior and Dede Burcham, sophomore, rotating into second doubles.
Returning from last year's team and playing junior varsity are Zoe Schemrich, sophomore and Scarlett Turner, sophomore. New members playing junior varsity are Makayla Davis, freshman; Audrey Reider, freshman; and Zeva Sheets, sophomore.
Assessing this year’s squad and outlook, Tier said the improvement of MV’s top two singles players since last year is very noticeable. “I think the hard work they have put in will make them both better competitors,” he said. “I also think that the three girls that will be rotating in and out of first doubles will provide us with a strong team, no matter the combination of players.”
Inexperience may be an issue to overcome, “I think the inexperience of some of our girls at their new playing positions will cause us to have to work out some kinks at the beginning of the season,” Tier said. “I am hoping that by getting a lot of play at the beginning of our season in our own invitational will speed up that process.”
Tier is setting his sights realistically. “I would like to see us finish in fourth place,” he said. “I foresee that Wooster, Ashland, and Lexington will be battling it out for the top three spots as usual. It will be a challenge to finish fourth because West Holmes, Mansfield Madison and New Philadelphia have been competitive opponents for us the last few years. I am hoping that Cameron (Carlson), Addie (Cooperider), and whoever is playing first doubles start off strong to give them some confidence. It is going to be a challenge for all of those girls to make this happen.
