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| 11-6 dual meet record: Farmington Invitational champions |
Though this years lineup was still dominated by underclassmen the Tigers put together a stellar season, going 11-6 in dual meets, winning their own invitational tournament and finishing runner-up at the season-opening Mound Doubles Invitational.
"We exceeded my expectations by a wide margin" Olwell said. "After the drought we have been in we saw some light at the end of the tunnel last year. But when Claire Padrnos moved it disrupted what had been a great doubles line-up.
"Then Jessie Novotny moved to singles, giving us a brand new look in both singles and doubles (no returning in tact teams) and the rest is history. A number of players had career years; we had great senior leadership; we won all four of our 4-3 matches and generally played out of our minds."
Olwell awarded varsity letters to 13 players and two managers for their efforts during the 2013 season: seniors Megan Stivers, Alyson Kelly, Emily Lathrop and Austin Tremmel (manager); juniors Becky Genzler, Kayla Rees, Hannah Toomey, Samantha Gallagher, and Garrett Brown (manager); sophomores Lindsey Fairchild, Beth Fairchild, Molly Rudorfer, Jessie Novotny and Callie Olmscheid and freshman Ryan Jara.
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| Megan Stivers All-Missota Conference (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
Stivers was team captain, the team's most valuable player and an all-Missota Conference selection based on her 9-9 record playing at the very competitive No. 1 singles position..
The Fairchild twins compiled a team-best 17-5 record at No. 1 doubles and shared Player of the Year honors while receiving all-league honorable mention.
Novotny was tabbed as the team's "most improved" player and Jara took home the Tiger Award for attitude and work ethic as well as her 12-9 win-loss record at No. 2 singles. Olmscheid also put up good numbers at fourth singles, finishing 13-7 overall.
With just three players, and only one varsity starter, graduating from this year's squad, Olwell is excited about his team's chances in the near term.
"At 11-6 overall and 3-4 in the conference we had the best showing in both in more than a decade," he said. "And we had a great crop of freshmen who will be challenging for varsity spots next year. Their improvement was remarkable from the start to the close of the season. Even after the season ended players continued to want to practice."
And while the numbers and the future both look good, Olwell was quick to point out they weren't the only things to celebrate about the 2013 season.
"We also had a lot of fun this year," he said.
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| Beth Fairchild |
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| Lindsey Fairchild |
