The Lodi High School Tennis Team served it up this season. Last season, the Devils finished second in the conference, losing by only one point. This year, the girls were seeking to improve and get their revenge.

“I personally didn’t make it as far in the postseason tournament as I would have liked, and I felt like we could’ve performed better as a team,” senior and captain Rachel Winters noted.

Last season, the team lost nine seniors, meaning they had some work to do to build themselves back up. However, they had some new faces, which made this process much easier. Aside from the freshmen, two new seniors joined, bringing the total number of seniors up to seven.

“I seriously could not have asked for a better group of girls to be playing with for my last year,” Rachel Winters said. Another senior, Claire Morgan, said, “It worked out really well because everyone got better as the season went on. The incoming freshmen are very nice. I’m besties with one of them!”

The girls were out for blood. Going into the conference tournament on September 30th, Lodi was placed third. They knew they had some work to get done to move up. Rachel had a difficult match against the top-ranked player in the conference, Claudia Curtis. Although it got rained out, Winters finished the match the following Monday, playing hard but losing the matches 6-3 and 7-5, taking second team. Ava Ballweg, Claire Morgan, and Katie Schilling won first team all-conference. But overall, the girls were able to take home second place in the conference above Lake Mills.

“Despite a few losses, I have really enjoyed playing some tough competition, such as Lake Mills, Jefferson, and Sauk,” Rachel stated.

Although placing the same, the team has grown a lot since last season, and they were not done quite yet. The girls went to subsectionals on October 3rd and pulled off some great wins. For singles, Rachel Winters and Ava Ballweg won. In doubles, partners Claire Morgan and Katie Schilling, as well as partners Sam Edge and Addison Crane, won. The girls continued working hard to do their best and went to sectionals on October 6th. They played some tough matches, but sadly, no one was able to bring home any wins, ending the 2022 tennis season.