With the start of a new school year, we start a whole new athletic year as well. One of the first sports to get underway is girls tennis.
*All head coaches were contacted for this piece. Responses are shown below. Your school not here? Send your preview to Michael Wojtychiw at mmwojtychiw@cps.edu.
School name: Brooks College Prep
Social media: @gbcp.girlstennis
Key returnees:
Bitania Derege (Sr.)
Estefania Hinojosa Daniel (Sr.)
Alondra Felipe (Sr.)
Cherish Lewis (Jr.)
Priscila Juarez (Jr.)
Ashya O’Connell-Ellington (Jr.)
Key newcomers:
Sommasi Egbuna (Sr.)
Laiyana Clark (So.)
Lena Davis (So.)
Coach’s season outlook:
We lost our top two players from last season, but everyone else is back, along with some talented newcomers. This is the deepest team we’ve had in my three years as head coach, and with a record number of girls out for the team this year, the future is bright. We are looking to make some noise at city and qualify players to state in Class 1A.
School Name: Lane Tech
Key newcomers (name, year in school):
We have an incoming freshman, Maya Kasza, who is a high ranked player in the state of Illinois. Since we’ve never seen her play, we’re curious and excited to see her in action once the season begins!
School Name: Lincoln Park
Social Media Handle: @lphsgirlstennisteam
Key Returnees (name, year in school):
Jia Champlin (10)
Niev Gilden (10)
Lyla Smith (10)
Meredith Zwirn (11)
Jordan Stein (11)
Cheyanne Contreras (11)
Audrey Gore (11)
Olivia Schneider (11)
Sam Zemnick (11)
Jovana Todorovski (12)
Izzi Bertsch (12)
Avni Bagal (12)
Taylor Spriggs (12)
Key newcomers (name, year in school):
Ivana DeLaPena (10)
Astrid Rosario (9)
Coach’s Season Outlook:
We hope to motivate girls to work hard at conditioning, nutrition and endurance to become a top-performing team.
School Name: Senn Bulldogs (with Amundsen Co-Op)
Twitter: @senn_tennis
Key Returnees:
Shayna Gregg (11th grade) First Singles, Captain
Finished third in First Singles at the CPL Championship Tournament each of the two previous seasons
Key Newcomer:
Jillian Kosztya (9th grade) Singles/Doubles
Coach’s Season Outlook:
While perhaps not as experienced as last year’s group, this year’s team is top-to-bottom our most athletic group in the six seasons since we resurrected the tennis program at Senn. We enter the season with a great chance to win one of the two CPS (lower) Blue Conferences, thereby securing a third consecutive trip to the CPL Championship Tournament to compete against the top seven other CPS Tennis teams.
…and if we don’t have any transfers, etc. this team will be back intact for 2024 as we have zero seniors.
