MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Morgantown girls’ tennis team was locked to defend its state title. It was going to be difficult to do so with a young team that was deploying three freshmen starters, but it was still within grasp.
Until COVID-19 broke loose, that is.
“Tennis is a little bit different because you don’t have to have a lot of contact, but when you’re playing doubles you do,” coach Ted Greenlee said. “They didn’t allow us to share the balls previously so that just made it impossible to play the game. We were terribly disappointed about that.”
Although a young squad, according to Greenlee the team was going to be a solid force. There were some changes from last year’s state title group: Losing three seniors and his now-junior 2-seed player, Cat Wassick, to track and field. Regardless of the losses, junior leader and 1-seed player Emme McKnight was back, as was Kassie Regules who made up half of the state title 3-doubles team. Regules was expected to move up to the 2-doubles spot.
“This was their time to shine,” Greenlee said. “We’re going to letter everyone [who was] on the varsity team because we don’t have any way of determining who was going to letter.”
Eight girls in total will letter, but it’s not just an off-the-cuff measure by the team – Greenlee was expecting the entire squad to make it back to the state tournament.
“I expected us to win the conference and regional titles even with what we had – the three freshman coming in were solid players,” Greenlee said. “They filled right in where we took off last year. It wouldn’t have been as good as last year’s team, but it was very representative. Everyone down there [last year] didn’t lose anyone and of course we lost three seniors, so I wasn’t expecting to win it this year, but if all goes well some of them are losing attrition and we may have a chance to repeat next year.”
McKnight concurs. After making it to the semifinals in singles and the championship game in doubles, she was ready to bring the heat to her opponents this year. But now with an extra season, she only sees it as helping.
“The extra year will turn out to be a good thing for us,” she said. “We’ll have a lot of time to play extra matches and get in the groove with each other, making sure that as a team we know where we stand.”
Repeating, Greenlee noted, will be much easier should Wassick decide to return to the team. In that, he hopes the star tennis player does come back to the asphalt to chase something she doesn’t have yet.
“I hope Cat comes back next year because we’ll still be defending our state championship,” he said. “I have a feeling she may. She’s a really good tennis player, and she doesn’t have a doubles state title so I’m hoping her and Emme can pull that in next year.”
When asked about her return, Wassick noted that she doesn’t want to come out on one side or another and will make her decision after the winter.
“I have picked up a racket recently and I’m not saying I’m never going back, but I think I will decide that after basketball season next year which I hope will be a big success,” Wassick said.
Regardless of whether her sophomore-season teammate returns, McKnight, too, has been playing recently to stay in shape. Her other plans include increasing her overall fitness and enjoy things while she can – especially after the virus took away many athletes’ final seasons. The biggest thing right now, however, is staying in contact with her friends and teammates and getting as many pick-up games as possible.
“I’ve been playing with some of the other girls, and trying to social distance as much as possible,” she said. “We’re definitely getting better.”
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